Keen to impress: Castleford Tigers' Muizz Mustapha reflects on move from Super League rivals Leeds Rhinos

The 22-year-old prop came through Rhinos’ youth system and made the first of his nine senior appearances, all as a substitute, in 2019.

He joined Tigers when his contract ended last November and is one of eight former Leeds players - six of whom started with Rhinos’ academy - in Castleford’s full-time squad.

“I’ve been at Leeds all my life,” Mustapha said. “I had a good time there and I met a lot of good people.

“I am looking forward to playing against them, I’ve got a few friends there so that’ll be good. It has been a bit of a change [moving clubs], but I’ve settled in pretty well and pretty fast.

“The lads are all good and I feel like I’ve come home. There’s quite a lot of lads I’ve played with, came up through the system with, so that has made it easier.”

Mustapha was a non-playing member of Rhinos’ squad at last year’s Grand Final, when they lost to St Helens and aims to put what he learned that evening to good use with Tigers.

“It was a good experience,” he added. “I was lucky to be there. I’ll take that experience anywhere I go and hopefully I can learn from that.”

Having spent 2021 on loan at Hull KR, Mustapha featured six times for Rhinos last year, scoring a try in a home win over Wigan Warriors, but couldn’t nail down a regular place.

“At Leeds I wasn’t getting much game time and I struggled to stay in the team and get a chance,” he recalled.

“It was tough, but there’s not much you can do about it. You just have to get your head down and keep on working and hopefully when you get your chance you play well.

“The season hasn’t started yet, but hopefully when I look back on this year it will have been a good move. It is a good environment here, we all bounce off each other.”