Hampshire out to impress at Castleford
Ryan Hampshire wants to make the most of his loan spell at Castleford Tigers in 2016.
The Wigan loanee has made the move to the Mend-a-Hose Jungle in the hope of more minutes on the field in comparison to previous seasons.
The 21 year-old would have found playing time limited at the DW Stadium in 2016 with the return of Sam Tomkins and England internationals George Williams and Matty Smith occupying the halfback positions.
Therefore, Hampshire said he needed to get out and play rugby for the sake of his career and Castleford offers him the perfect platform to do that.
“This is another exciting part of my career. I want to get some first team experience and that’s what I really need,” Hampshire told the Yorkshire Evening Post.
“I am coming here with a point to prove and that’s what I’ll be aiming to do. I just want to play.
“I started pre-season a few weeks after most of the boys, but I’ve settled in really well. They are a good bunch of people here, I am looking forward to the year.”
Hampshire has operated at fullback for the majority of his time in the Wigan Warriors first team, however the Yorkshire born star admits a run in his natural position will see fruitful results for Castleford in the coming months.
“I enjoy playing fullback and I have had a lot of first-team games there,” he said.
“That has been great, but I feel that if I am going to be the best player I can be, that’ll be in the halves. We have got Luke Gale, who has jsut got into the England squad and Ben Robers as well, so there’s going to be a competition. Hopefully we can bring the best out of each other.”
Castleford have impressed in Super League in the previous two years, with the club seemingly overacheiving to those outside of the Tigers camp.
Hampshire believes the club deserve to be where they finished, and wants to help them go one step further in the new season.
“This club has had some massive achievements over the last couple of years,” he said.
“They’ve just missed out in the last moments and I want to try and help them get that one step further. There’s no reason why we can’t win something and that’s going to be our attitude. We’ve got a lot of people who have won things and I’ve been in the Wigan squad when they’ve won stuff.
“I’ve been impressed with the players they’ve signed. They’ve brought in Joel Monaghan, Jy Hitchcox, Greg Minikin and Ben Crooks and that’s a lot more quality added into the squad, on top of those remaining from last year.”