CASTLEFORD TIGERS’ defeat at Toulouse Olympique was a “real step back” according to their coach Ryan Carr.
“I’m really disappointed,” he said after the 24-12 loss, their second in a row to start the season.
“We’ve been building as a team and doing okay in pre-season and the last few weeks but tonight we’ve taken a real step back.
“I want to look back at the game before saying too much but I don’t think our attitude was there tonight in certain areas. I thought it was in periods but not for long enough.
“We just didn’t have that steel to complete a set of six without having a diabolical error in defence.
“There were good signs early in sets when we looked really good, then all of a sudden there would be a line break which just isn’t acceptable at this level.
“Injury-wise, we’re still a way from being our full-strength side and losing Blake (Taaffe for the season) was a major blow, but even with him he wouldn’t have been able to do much with the people in front not taking their tackles.
“Toulouse are a good side – we saw that against Wakefield – and they have some good players like everyone else in this comp, but I was more disappointed about how we kept them in the game with poor tackles.
“There are still some positives to take from the game but I’m just disappointed with the game because we had a really good preparation leading up to it and the mindset was good.”