Daryl Powell unhappy with Morgan Smithies ‘crusher’ tackle

James Gordon

James Clare (21) of Castleford Tigers receives treatment before bing stretchered off

Castleford coach Daryl Powell was unhappy with an apparent ‘crusher’ tackle by Wigan forward Morgan Smithies that ended James Clare’s afternoon.

The Tigers winger was stretchered off after a lengthy stoppage at the beginning of the second half, with Smithies shown a yellow card by referee James Child.

Although Derrell Olpherts crossed for the Tigers during their period of advantage, they were eventually relatively comfortably beaten 30-22 by the league leaders.

Powell said: “It was a terrible tackle. There were a couple of crushers in there that was disappointing, and that one in particular was a really bad tackle, so I hope he’s alright.

“I thought we were disappointing today. At 12-0 and the big turning point a couple of errors one with ball and one defensively that really hurt us, I just thought we were poor.

“Second half it took us until the game had gone a little bit before we got the energy we wanted.

Wigan 30-22 Castleford: Warriors come from behind to maintain top spot

A couple of tough bits, Truey got injured again so that was hard. Wigan deserved to beat us today, we would want to improve a fair bit on that, which was really disappointing as I thought we were ready to go today.

“There’s no excuses from that perspective, we’ve just got to improve.

“That’s a step back. Even though we didn’t score points against St Helens, I thought we were much better in that game than we were today.”

MORE REACTION: Adrian Lam hails youngster Ethan Havard after man of the match display

Sky Sports reporter Jenna Brooks provided an update on Clare’s injury during the Leeds and Salford game.

Castleford have lost all three of their games since the Super League restart, and face Salford on Thursday for an early kick-off at Headingley.

Super League Castleford Tigers