Castleford Tigers head coach Danny McGuire has reacted to his side’s 26-4 loss to Catalans Dragons, admitting certain players need to take responsibility.
There was torrential rain at Wheldon Road and that saw the game become a battle of attrition as opposed to one of skill, however, McGuire did criticise his side’s inability to ice opportunities with those skill errors costing the Tigers points.
For Catalans, they won through their superior pack and the generalship of Sam Tomkins with the full-back earning the Man of the Match medal and deservedly so.
That was the verdict of Danny McGuire who spoke on Sky Sports post-match to assess the game, stating: “I think game management is the big takeaway with Sam (Tomkins) coming back and schooling us but we’ve got to learn.”
The defeat marked the fourth for Castleford in Super League this season with the club struggling to get going in the early stages of McGuire’s tenure.
Danny McGuire reels as Dragons dominate Castleford
Catalans Dragons ease past Castleford Tigers at The Mend-A-Hose Jungle 💥 pic.twitter.com/6tDbo40ITb
— Sky Sports Rugby League (@SkySportsRL) March 22, 2025
Previous weeks have seen them without Rowan Milnes but he returned this week, albeit at the expense of injured full-back Fletcher Rooney with that switch seeing Tex Hoy revert to his natural position.
The early signs from that were good according to McGuire, with defensive efforts letting them down, as he said: “I thought we started the game well and created some opportunities. I thought we had two or three really good opportunities and we didn’t quite ice them in those first ten minutes and then we just weren’t tough enough to defend our line.
“Two really soft tries in the first half that puts you under pressure and like you said, I think they handled the conditions better than us today.”
Adding to that, he noted: “We made far too many errors and there was a lack of discipline at times. I thought they just did what they needed to do in that second-half, finished their sets well and probably with their big fellas wore us down a little bit and we weren’t able to find a way.”
The first of those Catalans tries came after Nick Cotric’s brilliant one on one strip and break down the field whilst the second came after Castleford kicked out on the full with McGuire noting the ‘fine margins’ as where his side lost the game.
The Tigers boss said: “That’s the game, it’s fine margins and where we are at the minute, when we get opportunities we have to take them. Given our standing at the minute, we need to take opportunities and we didn’t quite do it and we gave Catalans momentum and territory which they could take advantage of.”
Castleford Tigers boss claims “certain players not taking responsibilities”
Credit: Ed Sykes/SWpix.com
Heading into Round Six, the Tigers face a short turnaround when they host Hull FC but McGuire insists that his side must learn and do so quickly with the Cas boss also claiming that certain players are “not taking responsibility”.
“We’ve got to learn and we’ve got to learn quickly,” he admitted.
“We haven’t got much time now but we’ve got to dust ourselves down and get ready to go again on Thursday.
“We need to worry about ourselves. There are some things that we’re not doing quite how we’d like to and we’re a bit loose in certain areas with certain players not taking responsibility for the team at times as well.
“It’s more about getting our game in order. We’ve got Hull next up and that’s the focus.”
Hull FC finished one spot behind Castleford Tigers in 2024, albeit a large number of points back, but the Black and Whites are flying high now with the teams 2025 campaigns being in stark contrast so far.
