Castleford boss Lee Radford is happy letting rivals in through the door - as it’s improving his side.
The days of pre-season training just being a hard slog are long gone. But one of Radford’s favoured practices is taking on opposition clubs in full behind-closed-doors sessions. Super League foes Wakefield have already faced Tigers as they step up preparations for next month’s big kick-off.
Championship sides Featherstone, Keighley and York have also offered opposition - and RFL referees have even come in to make sure things don’t get out of hand. Radford, who revealed he’s yet to open talks about a new deal after 2023, isn’t worried about giving away secrets.
He insisted: “There’s loads of benefits to it. A lot of the time, you know what’s coming when going 13 v 13 against your own team. You know the calls and the plays and get one or two players being awkward shutting those plays down.
“Whereas facing a fresh set of legs and different attacking structures can be a real benefit. Getting your reps in and putting your strongest squad out against an opposition is really helpful. We get officials in, too. A couple have come in to kindly ref it and we appreciate that.
“The contact is ‘shot to stop’ and it’s a respectable third man assist so in a strange sort of way it restricts injuries you might pick up in a friendly. We made the decision to try and run some opposed sessions to get our best players on the field against other opposition. There’s some real mileage in it.”
But Castleford will face Keighley for real on Sunday in Jake Webster’s testimonial. The veteran Kiwi centre, 39, spent six seasons at Tigers and was part of the 2017 League Leaders’ Shield winners. Radford said: “I played against Jake when he was at Hull KR and I was with Hull.
“But you probably saw the best of him here at Cas. This is where he made his biggest contribution. Some of the lads caught up with him last week when we had that opposed session and it’s a really good reward to have his testimonial against his former club.”
Radford revealed he’s going to wrap some players in “cotton wool” before their opener at Hull on February 19. New half-backs Gareth Widdop and Jacob Miller plus England full-back Niall Evalds aren’t likely to feature until their final friendly versus Huddersfield. Meanwhile, utility back Ryan Hampshire has started running again at the club after rupturiung his ACL last June.
Currently out of contract, he's continuing his rehabilitation with Castleford and the club hasn't ruled out offering him a new deal although much depends on his recovery and salary cap space. Australian centre Cheyse Blair, 31, has announced his retirement after his Tigers contract expired.
