Powell - Cup shock one of the best

Daryl Powell
15 April 2012

Former Great Britain international Daryl Powell believes Featherstone's Carnegie Challenge Cup win over Super League neighbours Castleford ranks among his greatest coaching achievements.

Powell could not hide his delight after his Featherstone team pulled off a stunning 23-16 win over Ian Millward's Castleford in a pulsating fourth-round tie at the Bigfellas Stadium.

"It's up there," he said. "It's a big effort for a club like us to beat a team like Castleford who have some special players."

He added: "I think it's a statement. We're delighted because we've been poor against Super League opposition. We got hammered by St Helens and we got beat pretty easily by Leeds.

"I've always thought the players were better than that and we proved today we are. There were periods where I thought we were wavering a bit but we just kept turning up for each other."

Castleford, who lost in extra-time to Leeds in last year's semi-finals, led 6-0 thanks to Daryl Clark's fifth-minute try but conceded three tries in an eight-minute spell, two of them when down to 12 men with Clark in the sin bin.

Tangi Ropati, Kyle Briggs, Ian Hardman and Greg Worthington scored tries to put Rovers into a 20-6 lead before wingers Josh Griffin and Nick Youngquest replied to keep the Super League side in touch until Liam Finn's late drop goal sealed their fate.

Castleford, who went out to another Championship side, Barrow, two years ago, lost full-back Richard Owen and centre Kirk Dixon to injury early in the second half but coach Millward had no excuses for his side's defeat.

"Richie Owen probably shouldn't have played but he said he wanted to play," Millward said. "That's not the reason we lost the game. I still thought we were good enough with 15 to win.

"You've got to acknowledge how good Featherstone were. The only thing I was surprised about was us."

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