Castleford Tigers’ sorry Magic Weekend performance has left pundit Jon Wilkin holding the belief that Ryan Carr’s side will get ‘massacred’ in the next five weeks.
The Tigers lost 48-6 to rivals Wakefield Trinity with Jason Qareqare’s late try simply a consolation in what was a terrible performance characterised by individual errors.
Head coach Ryan Carr made the point that his side’s downfall came due to the performance of individuals and results could get even worse given that Castleford will play Leigh, Leeds, Wakefield, Warrington and Hull KR in their next five matches.
“Wow, that’s going to get messy,” Wilkin said upon hearing the upcoming run of fixtures that Castleford have.
“I’d like to be positive about Castleford but the next five weeks, they’re going to get massacred. They’re going to get massacred if they produce anything like that.”
Wilkin admitted that Castleford could well perform in one game before dropping off, a pattern that the club have shown all season long with the most noticeable thing about the Tigers being that they are consistently inconsistent.
The pundit argued: “They might have a dig one week, but then they’re off for two weeks. They’ll have a dig for 10 minutes, then they’re off for 20 minutes. They’ll get massacred. The next five weeks is going to be (about) points difference.”
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Castleford Tigers players slammed for effort levels against Wakefield
After Carr utilised his post-match presser to put the blame on individuals, Sam Tomkins agreed that far too many players are simply not playing well enough or with enough effort.
“I think he’s addressed the individuals. I agree with what he’s saying,” Tomkins said.
“There’s so many Castleford players that are just not putting their hand up, folks giving up. Now, I think in competitive sport, giving 100% has to be the bare minimum and there’s players in that Castleford side that gave up after 20 minutes today.
“They had no effort, no intent, no desire, and he’s got to address that individually. We all have different reasons to why they’re performing so poorly.”
Jon Wilkin agreed, arguing that with a squad as poor in quality as Castleford have, effort is the only way they can win and when that’s lacking, it leads to results as devastating as today against Wakefield.
“It’s a weak squad, it’s not a 1-17 that you think can make the playoffs so if you’re a weak squad, what you do is you work harder than everybody else.
“That’s your only way out of that and they’ve just not got the mental ability to do that.”
FULL TIME | Heavy Defeat at Hill Dickinson#COYF #MagicWKND @BidfoodUK pic.twitter.com/uckCMdhnyI
— Castleford Tigers (@CTRLFC) July 5, 2026
