Fax's Douglas ready for derby - and domestic - rivalry

The rookie Castleford Tigers front rower, who lives in Shelf, joined his hometown club earlier in the summer on a season-long loan deal.

Douglas has been consistently impressive for Richard Marshall’s side and is relishing his first taste of one of the sport’s classic rivalries.

But while the former West Bowling junior is sure where his heart lies, he is less certain about one of his parents.

“I’m from Shelf, which is a Halifax postcode but a Bradford phone number,” laughed Douglas, who is in his second Championship stint after playing for Dewsbury, including two games against Fax, earlier in the season.

“I’m a Halifax fan, but there will be a bit of family rivalry on Sunday.

“My mum’s family are on Halifax’s side and my dad’s lot are on the other, but I’d say they’ll have to support Halifax this weekend since I’m playing for them.

“It’s going to be an interesting one anyway.

“I’ve always supported Halifax, it’s my hometown club, so as soon as I got the opportunity to come down here I jumped at it.

“It’s obviously really hard to get in at Castleford at the moment and this was the best option for me 100 per cent; I can come and improve my game and give Halifax something too.

“Daryl (Powell) sees it as part of my long term development, coming here and getting Championship experience and improving my game.”

Douglas admitted he was as disappointed as anyone with the manner of last weekend’s 13-12 loss at Swinton; a defeat which saw Fax miss the chance to draw level with Toulouse in the race for a top four finish.

“It was a very tough day in the office, but it’s just one of those you have to take,” he said.

“We should definitely have been better than that, there’s not much else to say.

“We gave them far too much, all the way through the game.

“We’d talked it up all week, saying how tough it was going to be, but we didn’t act on it on the day.

“Toulouse losing at Dewsbury limited the damage, but it also means it was an opportunity missed for us.

“The goal now is still the same, to get in the top four, we need to stay positive about that.

“It’s still achievable, we felt we needed five wins from the last five games and we probably now need four from four, so in that sense nothing has changed.

“We just need to make sure we turn up and play at our best over the last month, starting against Bradford.

“It’s a local derby, if that doesn’t get you up for the game, nothing ever will.”