EASY, TIGERS
Cas boss orders uptight players and fans to ‘chill out’
Castleford Tigers Widnes Vikings
13 12 DARYL POWELL urged his Castleford side to “chill out” after last year’s League Leaders Shield winners chalked up a nervous first victory of the season.
The Tigers, who finished 10 points clear in 2017 before losing the Grand Final to Leeds, were thrashed in their opener at St Helens and clung on to a onepoint lead against Widnes.
It has been a long way from last year’s much-lauded attacking masterclasses, but Powell believes his team will find their feet.
He said: “The whole place has been a bit nervous and that doesn’t help. Everyone expects us to be on a journey where we’re winning every week, but this is a different journey, a different season and we have to find something else.
“We couldn’t be all singing and all dancing because the conditions were tough and we’re still trying to find our fluency.
“It’s not going to be like last year and every season is different. I’m not a big fan of the World Club Challenge stopping our season for a week but it will give us some breathing space – we need to
SUPER LEAGUE
St Helens 2 Wigan 2 Wakefield 2 Leeds 2 Widnes 2 Hull 2 Huddersfield 2 Castleford 2 Warrington 2 Salford 2 Hull KR 2 Catalans 2 chill out a bit.” Greg Minikin’s smart 40th-minute try provided the only points of the first half. But Widnes went ahead briefly when Tom Gilmore kicked for Matt Whitley to score, before a Jy Hitchcox try for the home side that Vikings boss Denis Betts thought should have been disallowed for offside. Luke Gale converted from the touchline and then added a penalty and drop goal to establish what looked like a match-winning seven-point lead. But when Jay Chapelhow crashed over from
LF2 0 0 67 2 0 0 64 2 0 0 42 2 0 0 36 1 0 1 52 1 0 1 48 1 0 1 32 1 0 1 19 0 0 2 18 0 0 2 24 0 0 2 17 0 0 2 24 18 22 18 23 25 36 44 58 36 54 48 61 4 4 4 4 2 2 2 2 0 0 0 0 a short pass by the industrious Danny Walker, it sent up a tense finale that saw Gilmore twice miss potentially equalising drop goals.
Despite defeat this was another encouraging performance for a Widnes side that beat Catalans in round one, though Betts felt they should have won.
Betts said: “I’m disappointed – to come to Cas and expect to win isn’t something you really do.
“But we came with a bit of a purpose, and we stuck to doing things we’ve spoken about even when things weren’t going our way. I want the players to be disappointed because we came for the two points.
“We have competed with a side that completely dominated the league last year.”