Daryl Powell praises defensive effort as Castleford beat Hull
Last Updated: 12/04/15 12:46pm
Castleford coach Daryl Powell praised his side’s defensive effort as they climbed to fifth place in Super League with a 25-4 win over in-form Hull KR.
Scrum half Luke Gale scored a try and kicked five goals, including a drop goal, in Castleford's fourth win in five matches.
The victory was marred, however, by the loss of the club's leading try-scorer Justin Carney with a dislocated elbow.
Powell said: "Our attitude to defend was sensational and it's growing all the time. We look like we are a tough team to break down. Hull KR got an early try but I don't really think they looked like scoring after that.
"Hull KR have been blowing teams away with the way they've played so I was really delighted with our defence.
"We weren't fantastic with the ball at times. We made big yards but when we got down the other end of the field we weren't great but when you can defend like that you can come up with a scratchy effort.
"Obviously, the big dampener is what happened to Justin Carney. It's a big blow for us but apart from that I thought we were superb today.
"Justin has dislocated his elbow and it looks like he has probably broken bones in there as well. It's not a good injury at all but we don't know the full extent until we get some news back from the hospital."
Powell was also pleased with the performances of winger Ashley Gibson, centre Michael Channing and Australian stand-off Ben Roberts and lauded the depth in his squad.
"I thought Gibson was excellent. He rode tackles and I was really pleased with him," added Powell.
"Channing has slotted in at different times on the wing. It is not his favourite spot but he is doing a job for us.
"We are getting to the point where it doesn't matter who we bring in - they do a really good job. We are having pretty bad luck with injuries so we need the squad depth we've got.
"Roberts did a lot of good things. His game and his confidence is growing all the time."
Hull KR coach Chris Chester had no complaints after his side's three-match winning run ended.
Rovers took an early lead with winger Ken Sio's ninth try of the season but they trailed 18-4 at half-time and were kept scoreless in the second-half.
Chester said: "We had no energy whatsoever. We were outplayed from minute one to minute 80. The best team won. We just weren't good enough today, we weren't at the races.
"We couldn't keep hold of the ball and Castleford seemed to run harder and tackle a lot harder than we did. Our boys got their just desserts.
"We didn't deserve to get anything out of the game. Castleford probably created a few more opportunities to put an even bigger score on us."
To make matters worse for Rovers, they also lost Darrell Goulding with a head injury and James Green with a broken rib.
Chester added: "We were down to one or two interchanges with 30 minutes to go which didn't help but there are no complaints from me about the result. We were beaten by a lot better side today."