Castleford have no plans to strengthen their squad for next season, director of rugby Jon Wells said today.

The Tigers, who reached the Super League semi-finals this year, are the only club yet to announce a new signing for 2019 and, six days away from the start of pre-season training, Wells says that, although head coach Daryl Powell has not ruled out making a signing, he is comfortable with his existing squad.

Castleford parted company with five players — Gadwin Springer, Jy Hitchcox, Jake Webster, James Green and Quentin Laulu-Togaga’e — at the end of 2018 but topped their squad up in midseason with the acquisition of Hull prop Liam Watts and Leigh full-back Peter Mata’utia.

“The signings of Liam and Peter were considered and thought out and the club paid significant transfer fees to do our business,” Wells told castlefordtigers.com.

“They have added a great deal to this squad and, with the benefit of a full pre-season in our environment at Castleford, we’re confident that we will continue to step up in 2019, especially when you add in the ongoing development of players like Jake Trueman, the reigning Super League Young Player of the Year.

“We are working within the constraints of a salary-capped sport and you’ve seen a number of key players such as Jake sign new and upgraded contracts and that consistency in the squad can be a real strength.

“There certainly won’t be wholesale changes and the emphasis right now is on finding possibly one more addition if we can.

“We’re constantly looking to do that, but we very much like this squad and believe it does have the potential to challenge for trophies, irrespective of whether new recruits arrive or not.”