Powell: Tigers learning lessons from defeats

Daryl Powell believes Castleford’s comeback victory over Huddersfield proved his team don’t need to be front-runners to win games.

The Tigers have looked impressive when leading this season, but they’ve occasionally struggled when finding themselves behind.

“I’d like to think that it showed lessons had been learned from the previous close defeats we’d had,” he told the Pontefract and Castleford Express.

“We didn’t lose our composure and we didn’t go looking for too much. It was a fairly simply play we scored off at the end.

“That showed we were not trying to reinvent the wheel and come up with miraculous things to score, you’re staying true to what you do.

“We’ve lost some really tight games this season, so for us to come out the other side with a win this time is great and in a game it looked like we could easily lose towards the back-end.

“We found a way to make it happen for us and it is always pleasing when you know your team’s got a little bit of X-factor when it can dig its way out, especially when missing so many key players as we were last week.”

Powell singled out Jesse Sene-Lafao for special praise after the forward broke through late on against the Giants to seal a 26-21 victory for the Super League leaders.

“It was a great finish from Jesse to put us in front,” added Powell. “He’s playing well at the moment and he’s in a bit of a groove whether he’s playing in the back row or in the middle of the field.

“He’s really grown into the English game. There’s still some bits and pieces he can improve – we’re talking about that every week, but he’s playing well, he’s playing with confidence, his off-loading game is good and he runs great lines on the edge.

“I’ve been delighted with Jesse and he’s been another really good signing for us.”