JAMES FORD has stressed that he believes York City Knights' dual-registration partnership with Castleford Tigers will prove to be beneficial to both clubs.

Last month, the Knights announced a link-up with the Betfred Super League club, who reached the competition's play-off elimination finals last season.

The two clubs have paired up with one another for a third time, having done so previously in 2012 and between 2014 and 2015.

York didn't have a dual registration partner last term and were last aligned with Hull Kingston Rovers during their League One promotion campaign of 2018.

Ford thinks the partnership can prove to be profitable for both outfits, with the Knights able to select fringe players from a quality top-flight club allowing the Tigers to give such players game time in their squad.

“Dual registration as a system is different to the loan market," explained Ford.

"The benefits are that Castleford are more likely to release a player to us because they can have them back - I believe at 24 hours notice.

“It’s a similar agreement to the one that we had with Hull KR.

“Jon Wells (Castleford director of rugby) and Jon Flatman (York chairman) had a good positive discussion and there’s no pressure from either side, whether that for us to take players from Castleford or for them to put players up.

“Castleford also have an under-18s and a reserve team so there’s also the opportunity for some some of players to play for them.

“We might need a player to play a couple of games to get them back up to speed and that might be within their reserve team.

“We may have a couple of young players who may be a little bit off playing first-grade rugby and they could feature in the Castleford academy.

“I’m looking at it like a partnership. I’ve got an immense amount of respect for the coaching staff and Castleford.

"I believe that Darryl Powell is one of the best coaches in the game.

“Personally, if I can spend some time over there learning from him, I think that York will benefit from that.”