Castleford Tigers finally registered their first victory of the 2022 Super League campaign yesterday with a hard-fought win over Hull FC.
For new head coach Lee Radford, getting one over on his former club will have been sweet, as it will have been for one former Black and White in the Tigers ranks.
Mahe Fonua joined Castleford in the off-season after a less-than successful second spell in East Yorkshire and he excelled in the right centre after being switched from the left.
The Tigers eventually ran out 33-26 winners and Fonua took to Twitter to express his delight with his new club.
Fonua tweeted: “First W in the new colours. Cracker atmosphere at the jungle and a red hot crack from the brothers today.”
🙏🏾 First W in the new colors. Cracker atmosphere at the jungle and a red hot crack frm the brothers today. ✊🏾🐯.
— Eham Fonua (@EhamFonua) March 6, 2022
The Tigers were in the lead from the first eight seconds after Chris Satae dropped the ball from the kick-off and Daniel Smith scooping up to dot down.
Things didn’t really improve throughout for the Black and Whites, whilst Radford’s men looked enthusiastic and determined to grind out their first victory of the season.
And, for head coach Radford – against his former club for the first time – was overjoyed against adversity.
“I’m really pleased, the first three weeks you use the old cliches that we’re building and trying to get better but winning is ultimately what you play for,” Radford told BBC Radio Leeds after the game.
“We took some uppercuts from the disciplinary from Bureta (Faraimo) and Liam (Watts) and then we had Niall (Evalds) and (Nathan) Massey with their hamstrings, but there was a bounce in what they did and the performance epitomised this.”
