Castleford Tigers currently sit 10th in Super League. The Tigers have won just two of their opening 10 games. However, their results have improved in recent weeks. The Tigers secured a crucial victory over London Broncos and a thrilling draw with Leigh Leopards.
A key part of the Tigers’ uptick in form has been the half-back partnership formed by Jacob Miller and Rowan Milnes. Milnes kicked the crucial goal from the touchline to tie the scores against Leigh. However, this has resulted in a former Tigers star being frozen out of the side.
Castleford face a difficult home game against St Helens this weekend. Head coach, Craig Lingard, has explained why one of his key players has been allowed to leave on the verge of such an important match.
Speaking in his weekly press conference, Lingard has explained why Danny Richardson was allowed to leave the club.
Richardson, whose contract was set to expire at the end of the season, has joined Hull KR. He will provide back up for Mikey Lewis and Tyrone May.
“Obviously Danny’s in the last year of his contract and he’s wanting to go out and play to try and secure his future for next season and beyond.
An opportunity came up for him to go to K.R. He’s not been in our team recently and with the way that Rowan’s played recently as well.”
“He’s sort of got that half-back spot at the minute, Danny would be further out of the game and not play for another week or two or three, maybe potentially even longer, and that opportunity has come up for Danny.
Lingard believes that Castleford now have sufficient cover for the position to allow the former St Helens man to leave the club. The decision was also made with one eye on the future.
Lingard believes the Tigers need to begin blooding talent from their youth academy. There are some talented players who could make the step up to the first team.
“I think with the cover that we’ve now got, Macca [Paul McShane] can drop in at half, Tex [Hoy] can drop in at half as well.”
“We’ve got two young kids in the academy that have been training with the first team as well
“So it’s an opportunity for them if we do get any injuries, that they can come in and play the odd game or two. I think it’s really important that we start trying to develop our young players.
