Ruck much cleaner following rule changes, says Daryl Powell

Castleford coach Daryl Powell was pleased with the cleanliness of the ruck following the Rugby Football League’s rule amendments.

The RFL made a number of additions to their refereeing policy earlier this week following several shenanigans of players cheating to win penalties over the Easter weekend.

Players who are caught cheating – or attempt to cheat – in the ruck area will now be penalised, and Powell thinks the sport will be much better for the recent rule changes.

Speaking after Castleford’s 6-4 defeat at Wigan on Saturday, Powell said: “Yeah I am pleased with the rule changes, the ruck was a lot better today.

“I’d question the charge down penalty he [Chris Kendall] gave. I thought there were a few of them both ways so I don’t think that was a penalty but other than that, I thought he handled the ruck well.

“I reckon there were five or six opportunities there today which would have been played into the back of someone on the floor.

“I thought the game benefited because of the changes so I was pleased with how it was handled, the game was a lot cleaner.”

Powell was full of praise for half-back Cory Aston, who made just his third Super League appearance for the Tigers.

He added: “I think he has done well since he has come in.

“It took him a while to get an opportunity but he has grown, he has shown that he can handle Super League.

“He is running his edge pretty well and I think he is defending really well. His defence was one thing that was a question mark over his head about whether he could handle the size of the players in front of him but he has shown a real toughness in defence and I think he has done really well. I’ve been really pleased with him.

“It was Cory’s third game in Super League and Truey [Jake Trueman] is 20 years of age, and there was a lot of pressure on those two but they did well. I thought we were unlucky not to get anything out of it.”