Olpherts: “Every game is a motivation"

Despite scoring a double for the second week in a row, the 29-year-old winger was left a bit deflated on Thursday evening after Castleford’s first loss of the season to Wigan Warriors.

“Couple of positives to take but it’s still a loss and we had opportunities to win that game and we didn’t, I think we’re all a bit gutted because we can play a lot better than that,” Olpherts told castlefordtigers.com

“Our defence and yardage was just not good enough to win, they were rolling us too much down the middle, but we can take a few positives out of it and just go again. We’re three from four and face Salford next week, Salford again the week after in the Challenge Cup so, get our heads right and go again.”

The defeat will no doubt add even more reasons to get the victory over Salford Red Devils on Friday night, live on Sky Sports, but Derrell insists the Tigers strongly desire to win every single game.

“Every game is a motivation, we want to win them all, but it does add a little more motivation to get a win, more desire, we have to be a bit tighter in defence and I think we would have got Wigan.”

It is a return to the AJ Bell Stadium for the first time since joining Cas for Olpherts, due to the COVID-19 pandemic Castleford never played against Salford at the home of the Red Devils in 2020. It is also the first time Niall Evalds will return to his former home ground, and Derrell has been highly impressed with how the Tigers’ #1 has settled into life at The Jungle.

“He is awesome, he’s an outstanding fullback and fitted straight in, seamlessly into our team and is an asset to our squad and I thought he had a great game.”

Another player receiving high praise from D is Jordan Turner, who has started the season in tremendous form playing as both a winger and a halfback.

“He’s having to play everywhere at the minute and is doing a right job for us, credit to him he is playing awesome as well.”

Olpherts is highly anticipating the return of crowds in the coming weeks and has greatly missed having fans in attendance.

“It’s the atmosphere, we need a bit more of an atmosphere, home fans, away fans, it just adds an extra level to a game. Everyone is looking forward to getting them back in, especially at home at The Jungle.”