The pressure of having a job as a rugby league coach is one that few people can relate to. Achieve success, and you have thousands of people shouting your name and applauding your work. But fail, and it can become one of the hardest roles in sport.
Bosses across Super League last year had a mixture of results, with some, such as Willie Peters, enjoying a hugely successful year at Hull KR. The same can’t be said for his former assistant boss Danny McGuire, who was the first coach to be sacked in 2025 following a poor start at Castleford Tigers.
The new season brings new hope from both fans and clubs, as they look ahead with positivity and a vision that this year will be one of improvement and success. However, if things don’t start in the right way, that hope turns to anger, and the relationships between the fans and the clubs start to blur.
We have chosen three coaches who are arguably under the most pressure heading into 2026, with all three needing to have much improved years due to poor 2025 campaigns.
Check out the latest episode of The Serious About Rugby League Show on our YouTube channel here.
Super League coaches under the most pressure
Sam Burgess:
Following a 2024 campaign that saw them end the regular season in third place, and a semi-final appearance which they only lost by two points, Warrington’s 2025 was a sheer capitulation, with all the hard work they’d done the previous year being thrown away.
They actually started the year quite well, winning seven of their first 10 games in league and cup. Their performance in Las Vegas against Wigan Warriors was disappointing, with the side failing to score until the 65th minute, when they were already 42-0 down.
After picking themselves back up, they won four in a row in all competitions, two of which came against St Helens. Defeats to Hull FC and Leigh followed though, and whilst their league form took a dive, it was almost swept under the rug due to the club’s success in the Challenge Cup.
Wire made the final at Wembley, but lost out in agonising fashion, with Tom Davies taking the spoils for Hull KR in the final minutes of the game. From then on, Warrington’s year kept getting worse and worse. After the Cup final, they managed just four wins in thirteen games, with their worst defeat coming at the hands of Salford Red Devils.
Morale in both the playing group and the fan base reached a new low at that point, and it even led to players refusing to turn up on game days. Matt Dufty was named at 18th man away at Hull FC, but didn’t travel with the squad.
As he enters the third and final year of his contract, Burgess will need to make a serious upheaval both in performances and results if he is to extend his stay at the Halliwell Jones Stadium.
He has decided to give youth a chance, with the likes of Cai Taylor-Wray and Adam Holroyd both receiving major squad numbers, but that is a risky route to go down when you are already under fire, and if it doesn’t work out, could be costly.
Ryan Carr:
Castleford’s new boss may not be under as much pressure as Burgess when it comes to his job, but Carr will certainly have huge pressure on him from the fans.
Since Daryl Powell left at the end of 2021, the club have had six head coaches. Lee Radford lasted the longest with just over a season. He was the followed by Andy Last, Craig Lingard, Danny Ward and McGuire, before Chris Chester took over for the second half of 2025.
Whatever the Tigers tried never seemed to work, but Carr’s arrival and the signings they have made bring a sense of optimism back to Wheldon Road.
That being said, the former Featherstone boss needs to start the year well, because the Castleford faithful have put a lot of their hope in him to change their fortunes. If he doesn’t, things could go south, and whilst his job may not be under threat, his relationship with the fans will be.
The Tigers first six see them take on Wigan, Toulouse, Huddersfield, Leeds, Warrington and Bradford. Anything less than three wins could be classed as a failure, and would get Carr’s Super League career off to a poor start.
Luke Robinson:
Huddersfield were another team who underperformed last year, but Robinson can be somewhat excused due to his side’s sheer amount of injuries. Combined, their starting 13, judging by squad numbers, missed a total of 137 matches last year in all competitions, which is an average of 4.7 per game.
Robinson is heading into the second of a three-year deal, but if he fails to make an improvement on last year, then questions will surely start to be asked. We have seen what the former half-back can do when his key men are on the field, with the side winning four of the last eight to end the year.
Recruitment at the club, on paper, looks poor, but we will have to wait and see how that pans out. The Giants are yet to replace Oliver Wilson, who joined Wigan for an undisclosed fee, and with marquee signing Tom Burgess failing to live up to expectations, the Huddersfield forward pack is a huge concern.
