Video: Castleford Tigers coach Daryl Powell says Dave Furner will turn Leeds around

Tigers will be at Emerald Headingley on Thursday to take on a Leeds Rhinos team two points adrift at the bottom of Betfred Super League and with only one win to their credit from eight games this year.

It is a desperate situation for Leeds and Furner, but Powell believes a revival is just around the corner – and he says that will make it a tricky night for his men.

Powell was in charge at Leeds in 2003, the year Furner joined the club as a player.

He insisted: “I am pretty sure he will turn it around.

“They are a pretty loyal club when you look at what they do with their coaches.

“Dave is a real smart man and a pretty durable man as well and I think he’ll just keep getting on with his work.”

With more than a quarter of their matches already behind them, Leeds are facing the real prospect of a second successive battle against relegation.

The team finishing bottom this season will drop into the Championship, but Powell reckons it is too soon for anyone at Headingley to panic.

“It is still early days,” he said.

“I know they have played one more game than us, but they are all right – they are coming after teams.

“They have been pretty aggressive with their carries and they are in games at the moment so they are difficult to beat, but they are getting beat and they will need to turn that around.

“Obviously we’re hoping that’s not going to be on Thursday.”

Tigers have lost two of their last three matches and Powell added: “We have got to make sure we are good enough to beat them, but Leeds are a big club, they’ve got some good players in there.

“They are in a difficult position at the moment, not one they’d want to be in, but they will keep working towards where they want to be.”

Furner was a Grand Final winner with Leeds in 2004, the year after Powell left his coaching role there.

Recalling Furner’s first spell at Rhinos, Powell recalled: “He was a very opinionated player, he had his ideas about what he wanted to do.

“I was like that as a player as well.

“He understood the game pretty well, he played the game at the top level, he was an Australian international and they don’t come easy.

“He was an outstanding goal kicker and a great leader as well.

“When you’ve got those sorts of characteristics there’s a decent chance you’re going to be a coach and he has proven that to be the case.”

Tigers have not lost a league game to Leeds since 2015, the year Rhinos completed the treble.

Their only defeat to the Headingley outfit in 12 meetings was the 2017 Grand Final at Old Trafford.

Both coaches will name their initial 19-man squad today and Powell has two concerns among his forwards from last Friday’s defeat to St Helens with both Nathan Massey (wrist) and Adam Milner, who did not train yesterday, facing checks.

Powell said: “There’s not going to be too many changes.

“We haven’t got an awful lot of options in terms of selection.”