Castleford Tigers head coach praises youth talent after St Helens defeat

Castleford Tigers head coach Craig Lingard has praised three teenagers that played in defeat to St Helens.

Castleford have had an injury-ravaged year, with key players such as Paul McShane and Sam Wood out for large parts of the season.

However, the youth playing in a 40-4 defeat to St Helens was more of a choice than out of necessity: the Jenson Windley experiment in the halves has paid dividends already, while Fletcher Rooney scored on debut against Leigh Leopards.

The latest player given an option was Akim Matvejev, who became the first Estonian to feature in Super League, making a good account of himself despite his side’s loss.

Castleford Tigers head coach praises youth talent after St Helens defeat

Following the game, speaking in the pre-match press conference via The Wakefield Express: “Our execution of basic skills were off, but I’m proud of the three 18-year-old kids we had playing.

“The ultimate positive we can take out was that we’ve got three young kids who are doing really well in their development.

“They’ve gone out there and played together and ended up on the field at the same time, which is immensely pleasing for us as a club.”

Matvejev would not have been expecting to be where he is now not long ago, and Lingard continued: “It was only 18 months ago that Akim was playing in the community game.

“He has been a late starter in rugby league and the development he’s shown in such a short space of time for him to make his first team debut is unbelievable.”

After Windley’s excellent recent performances, he also played at hooker against Saints, while Fletcher Rooney has been tried both on  the wing and at full-back.

Lingard said: “Jenson Windley, who’s a half-back, jumped on in the middle at nine. He’s disappointed he got run over on the last try, but he’s got to be immensely proud of what he’s done in the last few weeks and remember where he’s come from – he’s just three weeks after his 18th birthday and he’s doing really well.

“Fletcher’s been waiting for his opportunity at full-back and got it with Tex Hoy being out. He took his try really well.

“There’s some really positive signs with these young kids, but we’ve got to make sure we learn these lessons into next year and we can develop the young kids even more with some better quality round them as well.”