Tigers recover from torment

TRAUMATIC does not do justice to life at Castleford in recent months but head coach Daryl Powell insisted his side are on their way back after a comfortable 22-8 victory over Salford.

The Tigers finished top last season but lost the Grand Final to Leeds. Last month saw them hammered by St Helens in their season-opener and sack England full-back Zak Hardaker after he tested positive for cocaine.

Yet the Tigers have won every game since and Powell said: “After round one, everyone was questioning us.

“But it’s gone now and we’ve since had three wins from three.” First-half tries from Michael Shenton, James Clare and Luke Gale put Powell’s men 20-0 up at the break. Castleford had Oliver Holmes sin-binned for a spear tackle on Tyrone McCarthy – before Grant Millington and Logan Tomkins also saw yellow after a secondhalf scrap. Yet Salford restored some pride later with scores from Junior Sa’u and Jake Bibby. JOE BURGESS scored a hat-trick as Wigan edged out Wakefield 30-18 to move into second behind bitter rivals St Helens. POWELL ADAM YATES won a stage in a top Italian race but his 25-year-old twin Simon could not avoid a last-gasp defeat in France.

Simon went into yesterday’s final stage of the Paris-Nice race in the lead but a daring attack by Spaniard Marc Soler scuppered the Briton’s chances and he lost out overall by four seconds.

Adam, meanwhile, earned his first win in over a year in stage five of the Tirreno-Adriatico in Fillotrano and is now sixth overall.