Powell hoping Castleford can build on cup victory
Daryl Powell wants his Castleford team to make it three straight wins at Headingley and build on their Challenge Cup win over the Salford Red Devils.
Both clubs are going in having not reached their best yet with Leeds currently sitting bottom of the Super League table having only won three games all season, and Castleford are yet to reach the heights that nearly saw them crash the top four party in the Super 8s last year.
In the reverse fixture, Castleford scored two late tries through Jake Webster as they won the first game of the Easter Weekend and Powell wants his side to put past troubles behind them heading into this game.
“It’s been a tough month,” Powell said in the Castleford and Pontefract Express.
“The boys have worked pretty hard, but didn’t get much reward until last week. It was an excellent effort. There has been a fair bit of adversity with us this year and it’s been difficult at times, but the team that went out there last week I thought attitude wise was exceptional and with the team we had out we did some smart things with the ball.
“There’s some positive signs from us and we’d like to reaffirm that at Leeds. We are after some consistency.”
The Tigers will be hoping last week’s cup success against Salford Red Devils can be a benchmark for them after a tough start to kick on, but admitted that he is expecting a backlash from the Rhinos.
“There’s been a lot said this week, Gary Hetherington has sent a letter out to the fans and they are trying to rally the team,” he said.
“it’s a tough what’s happened to them, they are talking about different things like their training ground, injuries, losing key players at the end of last season. But they’ve got a pretty good team that can really challenge you.
“A couple of games ago they weren’t too far away from beating St Helens. They were really sharp that night. They’ve since had a couple of tough battles against Huddersfield.
“It is what it is for them as well as us, injuries have made life difficult for them so far. But this is a game that is crucial to us. It’s important we focus on ourselves and we go and play well. We’ve enjoyed going to Headingley recently, the last couple of years we’ve been really good there so we will go and try to do the same.
“I don’t think it matters whether it’s a good time or bad time to play them, it’s about where we’re at now, what we need to do to get ourselves in a place to win the game.”