Castleford Tigers: Boss Lee Radford comments on George Lawler ban ahead of Challenge Cup trip to Hull KR

Lawler was charged by the match review panel with a grade C dangerous throw in Castleford’s win over Toulouse Olympique last week.

He will miss Friday’s Betfred Challenge Cup quarter-final at his former club Hull KR and Tigers’ Easter derbies against Wakefield Trinity and Leeds Rhinos.

“I can accept the ban,” Radford said.

“You just look for consistency when you’ve seen some others that have not been punished as heavily.

“That’s my only frustration; if it’s a spear tackle and that’s what the ban’s for, that’s fine, but it just disappoints you when you find others in other games, when you are previewing opposition teams.”

“But you go to an independent judiciary and they’d say it probably should have been, so there wasn’t much of an argument there.”

Lawler joined Tigers from Hull KR in pre-season, but was also suspended for the Betfred Super League game at Craven Park in February.

Radford added: “He will get to play them one day, for sure.”

The good news for Tigers is the potential return of fellow front-rower Daniel Smith, who missed the Toulouse game because of a calf muscle injury. Radford said: “I think it was a grade two, he is there or thereabouts.

“I think he has done enough to come back into the squad.”

Meanwhile, Radford revealed long-term casualty Sosaia Feki has made “some progress” and is in light training. Calf and knee injuries restricted him to less than half a game in 2020 and he missed the whole of 2021 after rupturing an Achilles.

Radford said: “We are on the field and he’s running around it, so that’s definitely a start. It’s too early to put a timescale on it [Feki’s return]. We want to try and put a pre-season into him, to put some durability there and some foundations that get him through the season.”

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