Andy Last rips into his side’s performance as he explains defeat to Catalans

Castleford Tigers have been struggling in 2023 and that was the case again as the Tigers were comprehensively beaten by Catalans Dragons.

After the game Andy Last ripped into his side’s first half performance saying that his side weren’t willing to do the tough stuff and that they wanted to play pretty as he explained what went wrong for his side.

He said on BBC Radio Leeds: “The game is always going to have a gladiatorial aspect and that means within a game you have to run hard, tackle hard and show desire and courage. You have to fight and scrap and we weren’t prepared to do that in the first half.

“We wanted to play a little pretty and Catalans bent our backs instead.

“The scoreline ran away from us and we made some poor decisions with the ball.

“What is hurting us is making errors and then conceding off the back of them.”

He also revealed that he was stern with them at halftime and even challenged them as men:

“It was a really stern half time dressing down. I told the boys that I expect a lot better from them in the second half and I challenged them as men and what I am pleased about is that they responded and showed that they care.

“They played with heart and desire and managed to get themselves back into the contest in the second half.

“We knew the scoreboard had gone but we did manage to score 18 points.”