Castleford Tigers: Frustrated coach Powell losing patience with players

FRUSTRATED COACH Daryl Powell has warned he will not stay patient with any Castleford Tigers players who continue to under perform.
Daryl Powell.Daryl Powell.
Daryl Powell.

Last year’s Betfred Super League leaders have struggled for consistency this term and Powell made no secret of his dismay after they were thumped 40-18 by St Helens a week ago.

Tigers visit Hull KR in a rearranged game tomorrow and Powell insisted he will not accept another below-par display.

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“I am a little bit frustrated with the way we’re playing,” he admitted.

“Our consistency is not good enough at the moment.

“We are missing a few players, but there’s some teams missing a lot more than us who are more consistent than us in terms of attitude and effort.”

Powell added: “I’m asking for a consistent attitude and effort from the team and hopefully that’s going to start to happen.

“If players aren’t playing well there needs to be an ability to leave players out.

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“That’s the nature of a team sport, players need to play well to make sure they keep their place in the team and the team’s functioning the way it should.”

A good performance and win tonight would boost Tigers’ self-esteem, Powell reckons.

He said: “We know what we’re capable of playing-wise.

“The difficulty is when you know you’re capable of a certain standard and you’re not at it. Confidence can take a bit of a whack.

“We have to grow our confidence in our defence first and foremost and then we’ve got to build on the back of that.

“It’s an important game for us.

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“This is our game in hand so we want to be winning this game and continue to get better as we move towards the important part of the season.”

Tigers are fifth in the table, 10 points adrift of leaders St Helens, but Powell insisted they are still right in the race for honours.

“We’re not even halfway through the season,” he stressed.

“There’s loads of scope for a team to come from nowhere and there’s scope for us to hit a good run of form.”