Castleford Tigers interim boss Chris Chester was once again left disappointed with his side, after another poor performance resulting in a 62-6 drubbing at the hands of Wigan Warriors.
Try doubles for Abbas Miski, Jack Farrimond, Liam Marshall and Jai Field helped Matt Peet’s men to another home win, and confirmation of at least a 2nd place finish, in what guarantees them a home semi-final.
Muizz Mustapha scored the Tigers’ only try of the night, after picking the ball up from dummy half and managing to break the line before rounding Field to score. However, that would be one of the very few positives Castleford could take from the defeat.
Speaking post-match, Chester was left feeling with deja vu, given the amount of times he has had to explain such a miserable results and efforts.
He said: “It’s just really frustrating. I just get frustrated with these boys. From one week to the next I don’t know what’s going to turn up. We had a really good performance last week against Wakefield and maybe we fell in love with ourselves a little bit. I think every time we’ve won a game we’ve conceded, I think on average over 40 points [the week after] which is just not acceptable and something that Ryan Carr identified, a glaringly obvious stat that we need to rectify for next year.
“I’m just disappointed with the response and disappointed with the result. Fair play to Wigan, they’re the best team in the competition and when they make a break, you know they’re going to score.
Wigan showed their attacking quality, and blew the Tigers away in the first half, scoring six tries. Like on so many occasions, Bevan French and Jai Field were pulling the strings, but youngster Jack Farrimond earned special praise from the former Hull KR and Wakefield Trinity boss.
He said: “[It was] just a tough night for us. Fair play to Wigan they’re an outstanding side, young Jack Farrimond there they’ve got a conveyer best of quality youngsters coming through the system and they were just too good for us in every department tonight.
“We got a bit of a response in that second period, but yeah we were nowhere near. “I thought Bevan [French] was great, I thought Jai Field was great…young Jack Farrimond, he’s a special talent isn’t he.
Chester reiterated how performances from players this season, even from ones that are under contract, will determine whether they will be part of Ryan Carr’s 2026 squad.
He said: “We’ll come in and review tomorrow and have a decent week and I’ve said it many, many times – these games are treated as dress rehearsals for next year. There’s players leaving and there’s players that are under contract that are playing for their lives as well for next year.
We’ll have a look at it, not a great deal to take out of that positive-wise, but I thought there were a little bit of fight in the second half.
