Niall Evalds targeting silverware at Castleford

Castleford full-back Niall Evalds is targeting a trophy with the club in 2022, and hopes to improve his own personal record in finals.

The Tigers came close last year in Evalds’ first year at the club. They reached the Challenge Cup Final, and were winning at half-time, but lost against St Helens.

Evalds himself has played in three finals overall. He played in the Super League Grand Final in 2019 and the Challenge Cup Final in 2020 for Salford.

Evalds believes Castleford have the squad to challenge for honours this year.

He said: “I think that’s the same for every team, everyone wants to win a trophy. We’ve come close last year, with the Challenge Cup final.

“Winning a trophy is obviously that’s something everyone wants to achieve. With the squad we’ve got, the signings we’ve made, there’s some some talent in our team and strength in depth as well. There’s going to be good players missing out each week. So that should should stand us in good stead.

“But definitely you want to win a trophy at the end. That’s why everyone plays. It’s what you dream of when you’re a young kid and that’s three finals in a row I’ve lost! I want to turn that around and win one. We all do, we are all desperate to win one. That’s the aim.”

Evalds praises new coach

Evalds also talked about what had changed at the club since Lee Radford took over at the club. The former Hull FC coach replaced Daryl Powell in the hot-seat at Castleford ahead of the 2022 season.

The Castleford number one said both are great coaches, and Radford had not changed too much at the club.

He added: “Like he said himself, he’s not had to reinvent things down here. I think Powell was a great coach and coached us real well. We were a well-drilled side.

“Radders had put his own stamp on things, it’s just little tweaks in attack and defence that we’ve sort of got to grips with though the pre-season and just how he sort of how he sort of sees the game.

“So it’s like it’s not massive drastic changes, just little things. You might see that on Friday see to see the sort of differences in how we play and things like that. Like I say, they are both great coaches.”

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