Castleford Tigers did their fans a ‘disservice’ in brutal assessment

Castleford Tigers’ interim coach Luke Robinson spoke Love Rugby League after the club’s final-round defeat to Huddersfield Giants, a loss that ensured they’d finish the season 13th on the Super League table.

Here’s everything he had to say.

General thoughts

“I felt really, really, really sorry for Cas fans. They came out and actually in that first 20 minutes they were singing and shouting and they were brilliant. There obviously weren’t that many of them in numbers but literally you could hear them all throughout those 20 minutes.

“I thought they were great. And actually the season they’ve had, obviously I’ve not been part of it so I’m new to this, but looking from outside, the fact that they still turned up and were still singing and cheering I thought were commendable. And I’ve spoken to the lads, I think they did them a disservice.

“I think those fans that were singing and cheering and applauding the players in that first 20 minutes, we just did them a disservice because they just weren’t good enough. But there’s a lot needs changing, I’ve said that before. The club is quite aware, I’ve come in with a fresh pair of eyes.

“I think everybody knows really what’s going on at the club but things need to change in pretty much nearly every department. We’ve got a real strong fan base. The town’s a mad rugby town and they deserve a really good rugby side and I spoke to the playing group at the end then and said ‘look, they need to strap themselves in.’ Because the vision that the club have got from Martin, from the board and the other directors is that this season ain’t good enough.

“It ain’t good enough and they need to strap themselves in because the lads that are going to be here next year, it’s going to be, that’s not acceptable.”

Did they give up?

“I don’t think they’ve all given up, no. Do I think some of them have? Yeah.

“And that’s me being really honest as well and I’ve had conversations with the playing group and with people within the club but you can always tell losing. You don’t like losing, winners don’t like losing but there’s a manner in which you go about it. I think the fans know that, like I said before, it’s a rugby town and they know and they can see it when individuals are fighting tooth and nail for themselves, for their mate, for the badge.

“The problem that we’ve got at the moment is when we don’t finish one of those moments then it feels like anxiety sets in, panic sets in and they give in. And there were loads of moments, I thought in the second half we actually rolled them straight down the field, could have scored, rolled them down again, did score and it felt like it’s game on. Rolled them down the field again, Tyler just don’t put the ball down and from that moment on then it’s a bit like, that’s us done.”

What have been your big learnings since arriving?

“I think there’s a lot of good people within the club, there’s a lot of good people that work extremely hard.

“We can just be better in nearly every aspect and actually a lot of the stuff are only minor stuff but they add up. It’s not a case, I’ve said it previously before, you’ve got loads of people that are working really, really hard that are in at five in the morning and leave at six or seven at night.

“We just need to be more efficient in the way we go about it from a structural point of view and that’s in every department. I think there’s so much to be given, I’m really excited to be part of the journey if I’m honest. I feel like the recruitment they’ve made next year are the winners.”