Castleford Tigers boss reveals meeting with RFL after Liam Watts ban

Castleford Tigers Head Coach Craig Lingard has spoken out about the suspension of Liam Watts after his red card against Wigan Warriors in Round One.

He spoke after Shaun Wane made some controversial comments about the suspension and Lingard was asked if he had any response.

Lingard’s response was certainly simple: “Not massively, no. I’m not against the changes that are coming in. It’s all to protect the players.

“Myself at Castleford and every other head coach in Super League and every other player in Super League this year will have probably done more work on their tackle technique under fatigued conditions and the stress conditions and the non-fatigue or stress conditions than they’ve ever done before.

“It’s not like anybody at Castleford or any other rugby league will be avoiding this or fighting against it. We want the sport to be as safe as possible and you know everybody’s got their own opinions about whether it’s the right way to move or not but we certainly believe it is and we’re 100% committed to that.”

Castleford Tigers set for meeting with the RFL

Castleford Tigers Head Coach Lingard went on to reveal that they are set to have a meeting with the RFL in the shape of Robert Hicks:

“I just think that there are areas that are there for reassessment and re-evaluation. I think this will one of them and hopefully we can have these conversations we’ve got a meeting with Robert Hicks after his press conference as well to go through some of the issues and some of the talking points.

“Robert’s really open with his lines of communication as well so hopefully we can have that dialogue with him and get a better understanding about maybe where some of the grey areas are on his end and where some of the grey areas are on our end.

“I’ve got no complaints with any comments that people have made either positively or negatively against that incident this week and about my comments or reaction everybody’s got an opinion and it’s down to each individual to stress that and be open about doing that as well.”

He also confirmed it’s the meeting with the RFL Danny Wilson referenced in their statement earlier in the week:

“Yeah, it’s not a sort of crisis meeting or anything like that, it’s just a meeting so that we can get some points across from our end to Robert and his department and then he obviously can give us some direct answers rather than having a dialogue either via email or via telephone.

“He’s really receptive to having these conversations which I think is great. I think it’s important that we have this sort of immediate dialogue if we can just to clarify any issues that need clarifying and it’s been great doing that and he’s made himself available for us today so we’re certainly taking up that opportunity.”