Daryl Powell lauds Castleford half-back duo after win over Leeds

Castleford coach Daryl Powell heaped praise on half-back pair Jamie Ellis and Jake Trueman following their Magic win over Leeds.

The Tigers provided a timely reminder of their credentials as they thrashed Leeds 38-10 to round off day one of the 2018 Magic Weekend.

Castleford scored six tries in the game, while 19-year-old Jake Trueman put in a man-of-the-match display and Jamie Ellis was excellent with the boot.

And Powell was full of praise for Trueman and Ellis after the game.

He said: “Our half-backs played really well and I thought it was a real solid team performance.

“It was closer to the 80-minute performance than what we have been putting in recently which is great and we will build from that.

“We have got Luke Gale, Ben Roberts and Greg Eden missing, but I thought the boys did really well. I thought our left side was really creative thanks to Truey (Jake Trueman) and I thought Jamie Ellis was really controlling. They both defended really well because Leeds always put a bit of traffic their way.

“I thought we played well. Magic Weekend brings out the best in us and we started the game really well in terms of our go forward. We came up with a couple of errors, but I thought our go forward was awesome and our pack was great. I was really pleased with the effort and the two points.”

Powell revealed he is a big fan of the Magic Weekend concept, but hinted that some fixtures this year are unfair.

He added: “It is a great concept.

“There has been some talk saying that some teams have got tougher than challenges than others and there may be a little something in that, but the concept is awesome and since I have been at the club, we have done pretty well in these fixtures, so hopefully that will continue.”