Castleford interim coach promises to ‘take action’ as damning Salford verdict delivered
Chris Chester, Castleford Tigers' Director of Rugby
Castleford Tigers’ interim coach Chris Chester has promised the club will ‘take action’ after another humiliating defeat on Sunday: insisting the club’s current squad is not resilient enough.
The Tigers became only the second team this season to lose to Salford Red Devils in Super League, slipping to a 26-22 loss on Sunday afternoon. It comes a week on from defeat to the other team below them in the competition, Huddersfield Giants.
And at the end of the week when the club sacked Danny McGuire, Chester delivered a ruthless and brutal assessment of Castleford’s current squad.
Asked to sum up the loss, Chester said: “It’s the story of our season. We’re lacking any real consistency. I thought we started very strong but we’re a team that can’t handle adversity. We’re not resilient enough.
“When we make an error they just put some points on us. The big turning point was I thought the Jerry (Simbiken) knock-on over the line, but it’s simply not good enough.
“We’ve got to take action and we are doing off the field. We’re working hard on recruitment to make sure we bring some tough, resilient players into the organisation.”
When asked if he felt McGuire’s exit had an impact on the performance, Chester said: “Not at all. They’ve had a really good week of training.
“That had no impact whatsoever on the performance today. We started well but we just made too many errors. We’re not resilient enough and tough enough on ourselves. We have got to bring those kind of players into the club to make us a top six side.”
Chester then hinted that fringe players, and squad members who will definitely be at the club in 2026, will now be given the chance to play regularly in Super League: hinting at big changes to the team in the weeks ahead.
He said: “We’ll give opportunities to players will be here next year. I want to see young Jenson Windley, who has been chomping at the bit, and we’ve got to plan for next year.
“I don’t want to be sat here in the next six to eight weeks and saying the same things. We’ve got to be better and make sure we bring in the right players and the right coach.”
