Castleford Tigers coach offers pre-season insight as Ryan Carr impact hailed

Castleford assistant Scott Murrell has praised the impact new head coach Ryan Carr has had on the Tigers’ squad, with the 2026 campaign inching closer.

Murrell joined Castleford in December 2022, and has so far worked under six different head coaches at The Jungle, including those in interim or caretaker charge of the Tigers such as Director of Rugby Chris Chester last year.

Australian Carr will officially become the seventh head coach Murrell has worked alongside at Cas when the Tigers play their first competitive game of the 2026 season on February 15 against Wigan Warriors.

The reality though is that the pair have now worked in tandem for the last two months or so, with Carr leading the way as he attempts to transform a Tigers side which have been more used to losing games then they have winning them in recent years.

Want more Love Rugby League? Add us as a preferred source on Google and ensure you never miss our exclusives and breaking news!

Castleford Tigers coach Scott Murrell offers pre-season insight as Ryan Carr impact hailed

A squad overhaul looks complete now, and the Fords’ pre-season campaign starts in earnest this weekend as they travel to fellow Super League side St Helens for Matty Lees’ testimonial.

On Sunday just gone, Brad Singleton’s testimonial took place at The Jungle between Cas and Leeds, with Murrell leading a largely youthful Tigers team to a 26-10 victory against an even younger Rhinos side.

Speaking about the excitement that’s brewing in the camp ahead of the 2026 campaign, Murrell spoke to the media post-match and said: “Pre-season has been really good, he (Carr) is challenging us every day.

“I knew Carry when he coached Featherstone, because I was at Halifax, so I was playing against his side.

“I had a few conversations with him (then), so to work with him now is really good.

“Everything’s new, it’s his first head coach role at the top level, so he’s come in with the systems he wants to play, got that into the players and we’ve all bought into it.”

As well as his stint at the helm of Featherstone Rovers in the Championship here in the UK, Carr’s CV includes a brief spell in interim charge of NRL side St George Illawarra Dragons back in 2023.

This though, as Murrell stated, is his first permanent appointment as a first-grade head coach at the top level of a pyramid, and he has not wasted time in carrying out change having inherited a side which finished second-bottom in Super League last season.

Murrell continued: “Pre-season’s been really good, but as we know, the real test is when the games come.

“We’re looking forward to the season, that (against Leeds) was our first pre-season friendly and we had a few first-teamers involved matched with a few kids.

“We’re looking forward now to Saints next week.”