Castleford Tigers head coach Ryan Carr has praised Super League for the call to make rucks faster in 2026, however, he has aired concerns about how exactly that can remain consistent.
Despite the directive to ensure quicker rucks, there is no official rule on what constitutes a fast or a slow ruck and that means that each match official may have different interpretations, with those interpretations possibly varying from game to game.
Bradford Bulls’ Kurt Haggerty has revealed that his staff have began profiling each referee to ascertain how their games might be officiated and now Ryan Carr has underlined the key to ruck speed – consistency.
Previewing today’s game against Wigan, Carr spoke to BBC Radio Leeds and said of ruck speed in 2026: “I reckon it will be different, I don’t know how different but it needed to be sped up.”
The former Featherstone Rovers boss said: “I’ve got my own opinions on the ruck from previous years and I’m really glad that they’re trying to make a change in that area.
“It creates a more entertaining game and a more free-flowing game but consistency is key. That’s going to be the hard part for everyone involved but it is discretional at times so I understand that.”
He then underlined that point, concluding: “The consistency for me is the biggest thing that we want and if we can get that, then we’ll work within whatever the rules of the games are.”
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Castleford Tigers boss shares injury update
Whilst ruck speed has been a hot topic across all head coaches, so too has injury status with a number of teams carrying injuries into the season, whilst others are relatively injury-free.
For Castleford, it’s their outside backs who have been hit hard with three of the club’s four absentees playing along the back line.
“There are some players who will be missing through injury, which is unavoidable and it’s disappointing for those guys but with that comes opportunity for other guys,” Carr said of injuries, adding that he expects his side to be ‘similar-looking’ to the team that beat Doncaster 14-0 in the Challenge Cup.
On specific players, he said: “Semi (Valemei) is still unavailable, unfortunately. He’ll be out for a couple more weeks but it’s a real day-to-day proposition for him.
“Zac Cini was probably pushing it a bit too much this week. With it being a soft tissue injury, we don’t want to rush that one back.”
Others who could be longer term include Louis Senior and Cain Robb, both of whom suffered syndesmosis issues in the off-season, the latter having had surgery.
No real injury return timeline were revealed, though Leeds Rhinos’ James McDonnell has been named to their 21-man squad this week despite sustaining his injury in the third week of January, highlighting how quick returns can be with very strong rehabs.
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