It’s third time lucky as Castleford Tigers get ready to face champions St Helens

They play hosts St Helens on Sunday, after originally expecting to face Hull FC.

That fixture, of course, was postponed on Wednesday when six Hull players and two coaching staff tested positive for Covid-19.

Castleford did, at one point, think they might play Hull KR instead given the Robins have no fixture this weekend due to another casualty of the pandemic – planned opponents Toronto Wolfpack last month pulling out of Super League.

Asked how he found out the news about tacking reigning champions Saints, Powell explained: “(Director of rugby) Jon Wells gave me a call.

“We thought we were playing Hull and we’d done all our preparation for that.

“Then we thought it was Hull KR so we did some preparation for them. And then we found out it was St Helens! They’re just some of the challenges you get.

“We’ve had to do three different previews but we’re ready.”

Just a few minutes earlier on another Zoom press call, Wakefield Trinity head coach Chris Chester had bemoaned how he had completed all his preparations to face Saints – only to be told his side will instead take on Catalans Dragons on Saturday as part of the frantic reshuffle.

It prompted a tongue-in-cheek question about whether Powell might make contact with him to make use of his counterpart’s instantly-available dossier on the champions?

“I might do that; if he wants one on Hull KR or Hull, I’ll send him them over!” he replied.

In all seriousness, though, the situation that has unravelled this week, and the chaos it has created to the competition, must surely serve as a reminder to all involved that more needs to be done to try and limit the chance of it happening again.

There is a very real danger that this Super League season will not be completed if there are further outbreaks.

There are growing calls for tighter measures being put in place outside of the training and matchday environment to try and limit the risk of infection, akin to what is seen in the NRL.

As part of sweeping protocols, players and coaching staff there are banned from visiting cafes, bars and restaurants. Asked whether it should be adopted here, Powell said: “I think it needs to be a consideration, whether they go as far as they have in Australia.

“I think there needs to be more guidance, definitely – what can and can’t we do?

“It is a little bit flimsy at the moment.

“We would all benefit, I think, from knowing exactly what the governing body wants us to do and I am hopeful they will start to think about that in the next couple of weeks.

“It puts pressure on everybody – you have to change your life a bit – but that’s just where we are with the world as it is at the minute.

“Players are out and about. (But South Sydney coach) Wayne Bennett in Australia has been stood down for 14 days’ isolation after going out for a meal with his partner.

“I’ve done that and at the moment that doesn’t put you under pressure over here.

“We can pretty much do, within reason, what we have to do.

“I think maybe if something like this happens, there needs to be an advice directive from the Rugby League that this is what we should be doing moving forward.”

Powell expects Castleford’s Challenge Cup game against Hull a week tomorrow to be called off and is glad to be in action this weekend as it would have been “disastrous” otherwise.

“I do think this is probably going to be a sign of the times and the Rugby League are going to have to be flexible with what happens if Covid does strike somewhere,” he continued.

“I think it has been a good outcome, getting games on – we need to get games on and we need to have rugby league out there.

“I understand the Sky viewing figures are massively high as a result of what’s going on and people wanting to watch the game, so hopefully it’s going to be good for the game moving forward, even though it’s a very difficult thing to manage at the moment.”

Meanwhile, the West Yorkshire club are looking to bounce back from a disappointing 40-10 defeat against Catalans Dragons when they resumed their season last weekend.

The loss of centre Pete Mata’utia to a yellow card in the first half at Emerald Headingley proved costly.

Catalans took control of the game during that 10 minutes when Tigers were down to 12 men and the Samoan was handed a two-game ban for the dangerous lift on Samisoni Langi.

It is already Mata’utia’s second suspension of the truncated campaign and Powell has warned him he can ill-afford to carry on in such a manner.

Castleford are short of centre options given Australian Cheyse Blair is still three or four weeks away from a return after injury.

Powell is considering using winger James Clare or back-row Alex Foster – who started his career in the centre – as Mata’utia’s replacement against Saints.

He revealed winger Sosaia Feki, who has been dogged by injury since joining from Melbourne Storm, will finally debut this weekend or in their following game while prop Liam Watts and Nathan Massey also return.

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