Powell wary of facing wounded Headingley club

Considering the circumstances, he could easily anticipate picking up a rare win at the home of the Super League champions.

Struggling Leeds have lost their last four games and are also depleted by injuries with six senior players, including ex-Great Britain captain Jamie Peacock plus England trio Danny McGuire, Kallum Watkins and Carl Ablett, all ruled out.

Castleford, in turn, have picked up a win and a draw from Powell’s first three games in charge but he is too experienced to read too much into that just yet.

“There’s probably never a good time to play Leeds,” he said. “They are an outstanding club and an outstanding team.

“It’ll be a tough game. Whenever you go to Leeds you know that. We are going to have to be right on top of ours. But confidence is a strange thing; it comes and goes and when you’ve lost a few games it’s difficult at times to get it back.

“It’ll be an interesting match. We’ll look to start the game exceptionally well and I think that’s really important.”

Since he came in last month, Castleford have certainly played with renewed confidence, building on that already garnered from the two wins under temporary coach Danny Orr.

They had to battle back from a big deficit to secure that draw at bottom-placed London Broncos on Saturday, though, and Powell admitted: “Castleford have been inconsistent all season and that’s something we need to fix up.

“But I am looking forward to the challenge and I think it’s a great opportunity for us.

“We’re not far off in games. We’re not playing our best consistently at the moment, but we’re certainly in the battle every single week.”

Their hopes are hindered slightly this time with the loss of leading try-scorer Justin Carney through his third ban of the season.

Powell admits the Australian is working on his tackle technique having been suspended for a second time due to a dangerous lift.

This time the 11-try winger must sit out three games and his coach said: “We’ve had a chat about it. Justin doesn’t want to hurt people – he’s a really nice guy – but we do need to change his tackling style.”