Lee Radford has called on his halfbacks, especially Jake Trueman to step up to the plate to turn Castleford Tigers’ miserable start to the season around.
Having begun his reign as head coach with three Super League defeats from three, Radford welcomes his former side Hull FC to the Jungle this Sunday in desperate need of a victory.
Danny Richardson suffering a neck injury has not helped in their attempts to build an attack but Jake Trueman has had a quiet start to the season, now playing alongside Gareth O’Brien.
“We’re not where we want to be,” conceded Radford.
“We’re working hard in areas but we’re trying to piece it together and play more footy. We need to play more footy.
“With Danny not there and Gaz in there for a second week, Gaz missed a fair bit of pre-season, so we really want Truey to step up and hold the fort and get us around the field.
“Hopefully next week we can see a bit of that.
“We have to get our spine on the ball more, and that doesn’t mean out the back, out the back, out the back. It means being busier.
“We’ve been asking for that now for three weeks. We’ll continue to work on it.
“(We need) them making themselves available and putting some air on the football. We did it for a small period (at the end of Friday’s defeat to Hull KR) and looked tidy, so getting them to start with that mindset is what we want to look at moving forward.”
Earlier in the week, O’Brien had insisted that the burgeoning relationship with Trueman would come to bear fruit in time.
“Truey spent the back end of last season injured, so we’ve not played too much together,” said O’Brien.
“But the more we do it and the more we train together, those combinations will only improve, as it will with our edges making combinations with them as well. We’ll come good.”
Castleford will need it to, with no timeframe yet on Richardson’s injury.
However, they will hope to welcome back Adam Milner from a back injury this week, while George Lawler will return from suspension and Jake Mamo has been making his way through the concussion return-to-play protocol.
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