Castleford Tigers awarded ‘walkover’ win against Huddersfield Giants in role reversal

Tigers were awarded a 24-0 victory from tomorrow’s scheduled Betfred Super League round-13 fixture at Huddersfield Giants when the home side failed to raise a team.

The situation is a reverse of last Wednesday when Tigers forfeited their game against St Helens, which was awarded 24-0 to visitors St Helens.

Castleford coach Daryl Powell had named a strong squad for the game at Huddersfield, with pivots Jake Trueman (back) and Gareth O’Brien (knee) set to return from injury, along with prop Grant Millington (knee).

The cancellation means Sunday’s visit of Salford Red Devils will be those players’ only opportunity to prove their fitness for the Betfred Challenge Cup final against St Helens six days later.

Giants, who have a lengthy injury list, confirmed yesterday they were unable to field a 17-man squad and were withdrawing from the match.

The club said two members of their squad were unable to train for Covid-19 reasons, until they received the results of PCR tests.

One had provided a positive result in a lateral flow test and the other was showing symptoms of the virus.

Giants said another two senior players were required to isolate pending the results of those PCR tests as close contacts, but four players being unavailable was not enough for them to request a postponement under Super League’s coronavirus regulations.

The sport’s Covid-19 framework states games can only be rearranged if a minimum of seven players from the senior squad are ruled out.

A joint statement from the RFL and Super League said: “As with Castleford’s withdrawal from their previous scheduled fixture, which was awarded 24-0 to St Helens, this failure by Huddersfield to fulfil a fixture will be referred to the RFL’s compliance department as off-field misconduct.”

Both Tigers, for last week, and Giants are facing the possibility of a financial penalty.

Salford Red Devils were fined £15,000, half of that suspended, after failing to fulfil a fixture against Warrington Wolves last October.

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