Another three injuries have left Castleford Tigers’ squad down to the bare bones, according to coach Ryan Carr.
Tigers went into Friday’s 52-14 defeat at Wakefield Trinity without prop George Lawler and outside-back Semi Valemei from the team which beat Leeds Rhinos five days earlier and lost back-rower Ashton Golding in the first half.
Carr revealed Tigers were down to 18 fit players before the match and confirmed: “Ashton tore his hamstring so he will be out for a fair period I reckon and we had two or three head knocks.
“Semi has torn his hammy and will be out for an extended period. He did it last week in the final five minutes and he stayed on the field.
“George has had to have his groin injected the last two weeks and had to get another injection this morning. We’ll manage that.
“He wanted to play, they all want to play – there’s no problem with the people and how much they want it. Just, unfortunately, doing it in the heat of the moment is what we are struggling with.”
Carr refused to blame the short turnaround for Tigers’ drubbing, which came after the home side had Matty Storton sent-off in the first half.
But he admitted he was struggling to understand how his team went from matching Trinity in the opening half an hour to being blitzed for the final 50 minutes.
He said: “We can’t play like we did for the first 30 and come here with the right attitude and play really, really well – I felt like we were right on our game – and then for the last 50 be the complete opposite.
“It’s not like we came here and didn’t have the right attitude or mindset or didn’t know what we meant to do. We ticked all those boxes really well.
“To get out to a lead and then concede that many points, I am going to have to go away and have a look at it.”
Castleford Tigers smashed under Trinity momentum
Tigers conceded a try in the opening set, for the second successive game, but looked to be fighting their way back into the contest after scoring the next two touchdowns.
Carr reflected: “Up until [Storton’s red card] everything we came here to do, we did.
“We were physical, tackling well, completing our sets and playing nice footy when we got opportunities.
“Then we had 35 per cent of the ball from that point on and they had 12 men. You need 50-50 minimum when they’ve got 12 men – 65-35 is a bit unheard of, but that’s what it was in the end. We didn’t have it because of us, simple.
“When you give a good team, full of good players, 65 per cent of the ball, they are going to be hard to handle.
“It’s like a snowball, it keeps growing bigger and bigger until you want to stand up and stop that momentum.”
