John Kear speaks out on rumours linking him with Castleford

Speculation had been doing the rounds that current Bradford head coach John Kear would be heading for a Director of Rugby role at Castleford following the departure of Jon Wells.

Kear has a long affinity with the Tigers, having played for them in the 1980s, but he has rubbished reports that he could be set for an emotional reunion at the Jungle.

“I just feel it’s lazy journalism, they’ve just made something up in all honesty, they haven’t asked Bradford, Castleford, they haven’t asked me and I’m sure they haven’t asked Brian McDermott,” Kear said on a West Yorkshire Radio interview.

“What they’ve done is just thrown something out there that isn’t true.”

Kear is perhaps best known for steering both Sheffield Eagles and Hull FC to unlikely Challenge Cup victories in 1998 and 2005 respectively, whilst the 66-year-old helped steer Wakefield to Super League safety in 2006.

The national coach of Wales, Kear is also a regular pundit for the BBC, but it looks as though he will be staying at Odsal for the foreseeable future.