Road to ruin - motorway identified as possible culprit for Castleford Tigers' Covid crisis

A delayed bus trip across the pennines may have contributed to the coronavirus outbreak which ended Castleford Tigers’ season, team boss Daryl Powell reckons.
Castleford Tigers boss Daryl Powell. Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWpix.com.Castleford Tigers boss Daryl Powell. Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWpix.com.
Castleford Tigers boss Daryl Powell. Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWpix.com.

The regular Betfred Super League campaign was brought to an early end, last weekend, after both Tigers and Hull KR reported positive tests which meant they were unable to fulfil their remaining fixtures as planned.

The sides faced each other at St Helens on Thursday, October 22 and 13 Castleford players were confirmed to have tested positive the following week, after a defeat at Leeds Rhinos in what proved to be Tigers’ final game of the year.

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That total later rose to 20 positive tests among players and staff.

Tigers’ kick off against Hull KR, in a game they won 38-24, was delayed for an hour after both teams were stuck in motorway tailbacks.

The RFL are “working with” Tigers to get to the bottom of why the club was so badly affected and Powell said: “It’s difficult because you’re in an enclosed environment quite a bit in the changing rooms, where you are fairly spread out and you wear a mask whenever you’re talking to someone else.

“The difficult one for us was - and I know Hull KR have had a few cases of it as well - we went over to Lancashire to face Hull KR and we were on the bus for more than three hours and obviously you can’t get any more enclosed than that.

“And then obviously you’re going into the changing rooms.”

He added: “We don’t know. it’s very hard to tell.

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“I think we’ve been really diligent with it and consistently across the season, but I think you can see it was soon after that.

“Hull KR had complications after that as well, so whether it was that we don’t know, but I’d say that has the highest potential.”

All Tigers’ players and coaches had to isolate for 14 days, but Powell confirmed: “Everyone’s all right.”

He said: “Obviously there was a number of cases which made it impossible for us in the end, but everyone is okay.

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“It has been a tough year for everybody and obviously it’s hugely disappointing we have not been able to achieve what we wanted to achieve through the season.”

Of how his players have been affected by Covid-19, Powell added: “It has been mixed.

“We know the standard things that happen with the disease; there has been quite a few had loss of taste and smell, some of the guys have had a fair bit of fatigue and headaches, but there’s some with absolutely no symptoms at all.

“But everyone is okay and we’re thankful for that. That’s the most important thing. I suppose the thing for us now is we haven’t got any games left.

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“There is a disappointing element to that, obviously, but also it’s probably a positive in that players are not going to be put under the stress of having to train and play to the level they have to play rugby league. We move on and we have to focus on next season now.”

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