Castleford Tigers are motivated to get back on winning path says Derrell Olpherts

Olpherts scored both Castleford’s tries in the 22-12 loss at Wigan Warriors two days ago which ended their 100 per cent start to the season, in their fifth competitive game.

Castleford led twice and levelled the scores early in the second half, after trailing by four points at the interval, but Wigan proved narrowly too good in a tight contest.

Last year’s league leaders remain unbeaten in 2021, but Olpherts believes Tigers can take positives from pushing them so close and will be highly motivated for their forthcoming series against Salford.

Castleford visit the Red Devils, Olpherts’s former club, for a league fixture next Friday, eight days before the teams meet again in a Challenge Cup quarter-final at Leeds’s Headingley Stadium.

“We are three from four [in Super League], we’ve got to get our head right and go again,” insisted Olpherts.

“We want to win them all, but it [the defeat two days ago] will give us more motivation to get a win, more desire.

“We have to be a bit tighter in defence and I think we would have got Wigan.”

It took a 76th-minute try by Wigan hooker Sam Powell to end Castleford’s hopes, but Olpherts said getting so close made defeat harder to take.

He reflected: “There were a couple of positives, but it’s still a loss.

“We had a couple of opportunities to win that game and we didn’t. We are all a bit gutted, we can play a lot better than that.

“You always want to beat the big teams, Wigan, St Helens and Leeds. Games like that are a grind and when you have opportunities to win, it hurts a bit more to lose.”

Coach Daryl Powell revealed Castleford were down to 18 fit players for the game at Wigan.

Jordan Turner, who switched to stand-off after Danny Richardson and Gareth O’Brien were ruled out, is a new concern with a groin injury and forward Grant Millington failed a head injury assessment.