“Got to fear another beating” – Castleford Tigers’ coach calls on players to step up

Following Castleford Tigers’ humiliating 60-6 defeat at home to Wigan Warriors in the Challenge Cup weekend, head coach Craig Lingard has spoken about the team’s daunting upcoming fixture and challenged his players to respond.

They’ve had a tough start to the season, with just one league win all season, coming in Round Seven against Salford red Devils, inspired by four-try Innes Senior’s outstanding performance.

Their luck changed again at the weekend, as they were torn apart by Matt Peet’s side on home turf.

Speaking after the game to BBC Radio Leeds, Lingard said: “I think if there is ever a game that shows the difference between the top of the Super League and the bottom of the Super League, that would be it.

“Wigan were outstanding and we were very, very ordinary.”

The former Batley head coach also spoke of how he wanted the players to react: “I don’t think you can put it behind you.

I think it’s got to be in the forefront of your memory because if you try and put it behind you and forget about it, you’ll probably get exactly what you got today on Friday.

“For me, the players have got to be thinking about that all week and they’ve got to fear that all week.

“They’ve got to fear another beating like that because if they’re not fearing it, then they’re just going to get exactly the same again.

“There are two ways that you can respond to it. One is that you can stand up and make out and come out and put in a better performance on the Friday. Or you can just give in, which we don’t want to be a team that gives in.”

No positives for Castleford Tigers, says Lingard

When asked whether there were any positives from the game, he had a scathing response.

“Not particularly, no.

“I don’t think effort is an issue. I think today it was defensive. I just thought we were very, very poor defensively. It was more of an attitude towards defence today.

“You’ve got to have the right attitude to defend.

“We knew today was going to be really tough and really difficult.

“You can make it a little bit easier for yourself by the way that you start the game. You can come out flying, your line speed can be good, you can be aggressive in the first 5-10 minutes defensively.

“You might not be able to maintain that all the way through the game because Wigan are a quality side and they’re better than us, there’s no two ways about it, but you can make the game a little bit easier for yourself.

“The way that we started the game today defensively just made it real tough for us to try and grab any sort of momentum back in the game.”

Castleford Tigers face Wigan Warriors again in Super League on Friday at 8pm with that game set to be broadcast on Sky Sports and details of that game and all other rugby league games on TV are available here.