Two-win Tigers have turned a corner says full-back

AFTER A difficult start to the season for Castleford Tigers, their England full-back Niall Evalds is confident a corner has been turned.

Tigers lost five of their opening six competitive fixtures under new coach Lee Radford, but will go into tonight’s Challenge Cup quarter-final at Hull KR boosted by back-to-back wins.

The picture suddenly seems much brighter following emphatic Cup and Super League victories over Leeds Rhinos and Toulouse Olympique, but Evalds insisted it was always a matter of time before good things started to happen.

“I think it was coming,” said Evalds, who was a Challenge Cup runner-up with Salford Red Devils against Leeds two years ago and for Tigers in their 2021 defeat by St Helens.

“It has taken us some time to get to grips with how we wanted to play and how it suited us but we knew, if we stuck to our principles, results would come.”

Even so, Evalds warned: “It is good to get two back to back, but it’s about carrying on that form now and getting some more wins under our belt.

“There’s definitely room for improvement, in terms of putting an 80-minute performance together.

“We are coming up against a good side this week in Hull KR who will test us in lots of ways, especially our defence.

“We will have to be on our A-game, because they have got some great players and they play a good brand of rugby.”

After conceding too many points earlier in the campaign, Castleford’s defence has tightened considerably in recent weeks and Evalds believes that is allowing them to be more expansive on attack.

“It suits us as a team,” said the full-back of Tigers’ attacking style. But you have got to be able to do that with good defence.

“I don’t think we allowed ourselves to do that in the first few games.

“Recently, our defence has allowed us to attack and to get into good field position, where we can get the ball out to people like Jake Mamo who are dangerous.

“It is based on defence, but I think, in our shape as a team and our structures, we have found how we want to play.”