Castleford Tigers half-back duo are future England stars, says Jon Wells

Castleford Tigers new signing Danny Richardson.

Tigers have paid St Helens an undisclosed fee sign 23-year-old scrum-half Danny Richardson on a three-year contract and he will partner Jake Trueman in the halves next season.

Trueman, 20, is in Sydney on World Cup Nines duty for England before joining the Great Britain squad for their four-match southern hemisphere tour.

Richardson is set to make his England Knights debut against Jamaica at Emerald Headingley on Sunday and Wells reckons it won’t be long before they are playing together at the highest level.

“Jake has been exceptional for us,” Wells said.

“We need to stop talking describing Jake and Danny as ‘good young players’ because they’re not – they are just good players.

“If they are old enough they are good enough and Jake and Danny have proven that.

“I know Danny is excited to be working with Jake and vice versa.

“I think what Castleford fans and wider fans of Super League will see is two very creative, high-quality, English international-standard half-backs who are going to spearhead this team.”

Wells is confident the new combination will bring out the best in Tigers’ outside-backs.

He said: “We envisage [the backs getting] plenty of service and plenty of opportunities for try-scoring which essentially is why the fans pay their money to come through the turnstiles and why we switch on the television sets.

“We want to see exciting, attacking rugby and that’s what we intend to provide.”

Tigers assistant-coach Danny Orr believes Richardson – who has been signed as a replacement for Luke Gale following his move to Leeds Rhinos – brings “a lot of excitement” to Tigers’ squad.

Orr said: “Obviously he didn’t play as much last year as he’d have liked, but in previous years he has always been a running threat and, as an ex-half back, I think that’s key.

He brings a great kicking game, is an outstanding goalkicker and probably brings a bit of maturity as well.

“He has played in a great team, probably the best team of the last two years, so he’ll have learned a lot from that and will hopefully bring that to us.”