Powell rests stars for St Helens game

Castleford coach Daryl Powell has rested several of his regular first-teamers, including Luke Gale and Zak Hardaker, for Sunday’s visit of St Helens.

Powell blasted fixture organisers earlier this week for not only setting up two “Easter style” weekends during the season, but also allowing Huddersfield to call off their game against Saints on Bank Holiday Monday.

In response, he has left out Gale, Hardaker, Mike McMeeken, Grant Millington and Michael Shenton from his 19-man squad for the match this weekend.

Matt Cook and Adam Milner are also missing through injury.

Powell told the club’s official website: “The RFL are not going to look after the players so I’m going to do it – there’ll be a lot of changes to our team this week. 

“We’re hardly halfway through the year and we’ve had two Friday-Monday turnarounds. When you play just one game it takes you a few days to even want to train. 

“We were told we’ve got a six-day turnaround and that it shouldn’t be an issue but to have that after we play Friday and then Monday just is not enough.”

Castleford 19-man squad v St Helens: Eden, Gill, Egodo, Foster, Hitchcox, Holmes, Larroyer, Lynch, Maher, Massey, McShane, Million, Minikin, Moors, Monaghan, Roberts, Sene-Lefao, Trueman, Webster.