Coach Rhys Morgan is hoping that the honesty of his Ilkley players will help them to bounce back from their heaviest defeat of the season.

The Dalesmen lost 34-18 at Driffield and need to halt a run of three successive Yorkshire Division One defeats when they entertain Castleford on Saturday.

Morgan said: “We were going well and leading 8-3 when we had a disastrous 25 minutes. We dropped off tackles and made errors we don’t normally make and went 34-8 down.

“Thankfully we didn’t cave in totally and finished with a couple of tries. That was a good sign and so was the fact so many of the players sent me texts or told me personally how disappointed they were with their performance.

“That should help the healing process. There were no excuses, and that is good. We lost because we played poorly for a key part of the game.”

Ilkley have injury problems. Scrum half Kirk Arundale damaged an ankle so rookies Ryan Cooper or Jimmy Crowther are vying for the position.

Second row Peter Small broke a toe at Driffield which means new boy Ollie Renton will switch to lock with Neil Spence set to return at flanker.