'It's a crazy world and we're doing our best ' - Castleford Tigers boss confident of better times ahead

Tigers are licking their wounds after two costly defeats - to Warrington Wolves in Betfred Super League and a Coral Challenge Cup tie against Hull - just three days apart.

Since rugby league resumed following the coronavirus shutdown, Castleford - who don’t have a fixture this week - have had matches postponed and rearranged and opponents changed at short notice.

Powell admitted the disruption has made the past six weeks an incredibly difficult period for the team, but believes they will be better for it in the long run.

“Since lockdown I can’t describe what we’ve had thrown at us, it has been unbelievable,” he said.

“The world’s a crazy place at the moment and it certainly is with the things we are having to deal with.

“We are just trying to do our best and come out the other side as a better team. I think we probably will.”

Tigers are seventh in the Super League table, which is now calculated on win percentage rather than points.

Powell conceded that makes it difficult to set a target for their remaining 11 games, but is refusing to give up on the top-four and a place in November’s play-offs.

Other than two meetings with Leeds Rhinos, all Castleford’s remaining fixtures are against teams outside the current top-four and Powell said: “It’s hard to know exactly what you need to do to achieve something - is it 70 per cent, 60 per cent?

“Who knows? I have absolutely no clue this season what you need to do to be successful.

“The Challenge Cup is the only thing with any certainty and we are out of that. That’s really disappointing, but it is going to be really hard to win two comps this year, so there’s going to be an impact for the teams who go to the later rounds of the Challenge Cup.

“For us, we have got the league to go for and we’re not in a fantastic position, but I do think we have been pretty good this year without actually getting what we want. We have got to find a way back to the league campaign and try and get ourselves straightened up.”