WATCH: Castleford Tigers boss Daryl Powell "offended" and Jake Trueman pulls out again

Speaking ahead of the Super League fixture with Hull FC at Wheldon Road, Powell said the governing body has been in touch regarding his comments about referees following last week’s loss against Huddersfield Giants.

He had, among other things, labelled the standard of referring as “terribly poor” since the sport resumed after lockdown.

Castleford have lost six of their seven games since it started again last month and they are in dire need of a victory tomorrow.

“I’ve received a notice from the RFL about those comments,” said Powell, who was aggrieved a number of opponents were banned retrospectively for challenges on his players yet not punished on the field of play.

“I don’t think I was bad towards any particular referee; I just talked about them improving and I’ve got to answer those issues.

“I think everybody should want to improve. You can’t hide behind anything. I know I can’t as a coach.

“That was my main point really; we’re all looking to get better in rugby league and, even though it’s tough times, you should still be judged on what you do and not everybody is, unfortunately.

“But I’ll be answering those. I don’t think I ever bring the game into disrepute - (although) I shouldn’t have walked on the field here a couple of years ago!

“I always do everything I can to help the sport of rugby league and I’m offended that whoever it is thinks that I don’t.”

Asked if the RFL had said he is bringing the sport into disrepute, the 55-year-old added: “There’s some of that in there. It’s operational rules.

“Whether they are actually right in terms of it, I don’t know. I don’t want to mention too much more.

“I have to answer and I don’t want to be getting a fine and then another fine on top of it.”

Meanwhile, Trueman is set to miss a fifth successive game with a recurring back issue.

With Castleford already without injured scrum-half Danny Richardson - and Samoa international Pete Mata’utia - the Great Britain tourist was named in the 21-man squad for tomorrow’s contest.

But Powell said he has had another setback and it is nothing that surgery can cure.

“It’s not that; the scans have shown there’s nothing significant in there,” he said.

“But they don’t really matter if a player can’t perform and he can’t get on the field.

“He trained on Monday and got through that reasonably well and then he’s in trouble again today in training.

“Jake won’t play again tomorrow.

“I was hoping he’d be back this week but he’s pulled out today so we just have to look after him and play well with players out of position.

“I’ll have to make a late call on who we go with.

“We have a couple of young, durable half-backs that are both injured at the moment and that’s causing us some trouble.”

Full-back Gareth O’Brien switched there last week alongside Calum Turner - the 23-year-old who Powell today confirmed will be moving on at the end of the season - and that is an “option” for tomorrow.

The coach did say that long-serving prop Matt Cook will play his first game of the season.

The former Bradford Bulls and Hull KR forward, who joined from London Broncos at the end of 2014, heads into the Championship with Widnes Vikings next term.

Cook, who turns 34 in a few weeks’ time, has not featured since the Super League semi-final loss to Salford Red Devils 12 months ago and Powell is delighted to see him back.

The coach said: “He’s awesome Cooky. He’s a great bloke around the environment.

“He likes to take the Mick out of me a bit so that’s always good; the boys like him for that.

“He’s been a quality player for us.

“It’s good to see him back out there. He’s had it pretty tough this season and really struggled to shake off some injuries.

“He’ll be buzzing to get out there and the players love him so they’ll be pleased to see as well."

It is also Castleford’s first game back at Wheldon Road since March which brings some relief to the squad, even if it remains behind closed doors.

“We’ve had quite a few trips to Lancashire so it’ll be good to be at home,” said Powell.

“Generally, when you’re coming home from Lancashire they close the motorways when you’re on way home, don’t they!

“So we end up getting home at two o’clock in the morning. It’s just been hard work and logistically this is much better.

“Most teams are having to travel around a fair bit but some teams have had the benefit of having games played at their own ground.

“We haven’t yet so it’ll be good to have that tomorrow.

“But we just need to try and play consistently well for 80 minutes which we haven’t done since lockdown.

“It’s about performance and that’s proving difficult as being able to select players in their rightful position has been a ridiculous challenge.

“We’re faced with it again tomorrow. We’re trying our best to piece a game together that is consistent and we’ll try and stay positive.

“It’s an important game.

"We've a couple of young boys who are really coming forward at the moment and that's a positive; Lewis Peachey will be in there tomorrow and I'm looking forward to seeing him play so there's some real positives in and around the tough stuff."

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James Mitchinson