Powell: Character and effort was outstanding

Daryl Powell praised Castleford’s character after they recorded a 32-24 victory at Catalan on Saturday.

The Tigers scored two late tries to secure the win despite being down to 11 men at one point in the second half following the sin-binning of Kevin Larroyer and Mike McMeeken.

The result was Castleford’s 20th success of the regular season and Powell was delighted with the manner in which it was achieved.

“I think it is a big win for us obviously – the circumstances of it with us going down to 11 men and still defending like we did,” he said.

“I thought there was some really tough calls out there. I just thought the character and effort from us was outstanding.

“We started the game really well and then allowed Catalans back into it a little bit.

“I thought they played really well at the back end of the first half, but we did some special things when we were under pressure.

“Jy Hitchcox produced two world-class finishes and as a team we just have so much character and determination and we’re not willing to be beaten. It was a fantastic win for us.

“We’re playing against a really physical team – they’ve minimal injuries and we’ve got six or seven, so for us to come away from home to Catalan in these conditions was a huge, huge effort for us to win that game.”