Radford: “It feels like we’re building and going in the right direction.”

Lee Radford believes his side is heading in the right direction and building the foundations to kickstart their season following Castleford Tigers’ 32-6 win over Toulouse Olympique. 

The Tigers put in a near-perfect performance as they played host to Toulouse for the first time as Greg Eden, Niall Evalds, Adam Milner, Jake Mamo, and Liam Watts all got on the scoresheet.

Liam Watts, Jake Trueman, and Gareth O’Brien put in professional performances with Watts being named Man Of The Match.

Radford was left disappointed with conceding a try in the final minute of the fixture against Toulouse and believed that the challenge his side faced could have been a potential banana skin. 

“I’m disappointed to concede the try at the end as the zero would have been fantastic but this had the potential to be a banana skin,” Radford told Prost. 

“I don’t want to say it was a must-win but it had that feel to it which is good. It feels like we’re building and going in the right direction. To keep the score to six points and get points on the board was pleasing.”

Winger and first try scorer Greg Eden was forced off at half time being replaced by Mahe Fonua with Radford confirming that the interchange was made as a precaution with Eden picking up a confirmed knock. 

“Greg was just a knock, nothing serious. We had Mahe on the bench,” added Radford. 

“I thought he came on and did a really good job and that was a luxury for us. He is in fine form (Greg) and our goal is to keep him on the field as consistently as we can. His pre season has been different to everyone else’s and hopefully we will see the benefit of that going forward.”

Having won back to back games, many will be viewing this weeks victory as a turning point in the season and Radford has always felt that getting ‘troops’ back would be beneficial in picking up the clubs form. 

“There was drums banging outside of where we was and I always felt that when we got our troops back you would see a spike in our performance,” continued Radford. 

“After the first couple of rounds, we took a while to fall into the shapes we wanted to to and the way we wanted to play. Our defence has looked more solid then it did in the first few rounds.”

Up next for Castleford Tigers is a trip to Hull Kingston Rovers in the quarter finals of the Betfred Challenge Cup and with Rovers defeating Warrington Wolves 34-18, Radford knows that the club from East Yorkshire will prove a tough test. 

“I think they sold out tonight against Warrington and they have beaten Warrington,” added Radford.

“I love it there it is a big pitch. Two teams that like to play knockout footy and I can’t wait for it.”

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