Boss admits Castleford Tigers are doing it tough after Hull FC setback - but says they will bounce back

This week’s 32-28 loss to Hull was Tigers’ seventh in eight games since rugby league resumed from the coronavirus lockdown two months ago.

Castleford have been hit hard by injuries - including to both first-choice half-backs - and a series of controversial decisions by match officials and Powell conceded their poor run is taking its toll.

“I have never been a great loser and it always impacts on a coach when you are losing games,” he reflected.

“It is hard getting players on the field and managing games is difficult because of what’s happening to us - and it is every week.

“It is tough - tough for players and coaches, but we have got to get ourselves through it and out the other side where something grows because of what we are going through this year.”

Powell added: “The one thing I would always do - and I would ask everybody to do in rugby league - is look at yourself and make sure you are doing the right thing.

“I would always ask that of myself and my players and that’s what I would say to everybody.”

Powell has no complaints about his team’s effort, despite recent results.

“I can’t fault our boys at the moment, how hard they are working,” he stressed.

“We are losing games by marginal decisions and marginal points differentials.

“It is hard and we are trying to find a way through a really difficult situation.

“I think we have been super unlucky, but I can’t fault the players’ commitment.”

Powell - whose side play Leeds Rhinos at Emerald Headingley on Thursday - felt some of Hull’s tries were “soft”, but described their second score - which came when several players were involved in a scrap in back-play - as “beyond belief”.

He said: “If the aggressor had been a Castleford player in terms of creating the melee I would have agreed with the try, but it wasn’t.

“Jacques O’Neill was pulled to ground, clearly. It was a nonsensical try really, I thought the decision was wrong.”

Hull played on and Powell admitted: “You’d want your players to always play to the whistle.”

But he stressed: “Certain things happen in rugby league that create a coming together of players and that was one of them.

“Jacques O’Neill was pulled to the floor and clearly taken out of the game, which creates a flashpoint.

“That’s why a number of players came together. It should have been chalked off because of what happened to Jacques.”

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Laura Collins