CRAIG LINGARD has hailed Castleford Tigers’ performance in their gutsy, controversial 32-4 defeat to the Wigan Warriors.
Castleford played 55 minutes with 12 men after Liam Watts was shown a red card for a harsh shoulder charge on Wigan’s Tyler Dupree.
Lingard, however, did see positives with the Tigers 4-2 up at that stage in the game.
“I was really pleased with the attitude and decision-making of our players. We were still in the game and were good value for it,” Lingard said.
“We might have been beaten by 50 or 60 points last year, I think it’s a new attitude from the players against a world-class team.
“For me it’s the best squad in Super League and for our boys to do that as a new group, I thought we were great.
“I thought we showed a lot of grit and determination, we battled through a lot of adversity through 55 or 60 minutes. We knew it would be a tough game, Wigan are champions.
“I saw a lot of positives out there, things we talked about showing our togetherness and play for the club, I thought we showed that in abundance.
Lingard explains why Josh Simm was on the bench and why Jack Broadbent moved to 9.
“Charbs (Charbel Tasipale) had struggled last week with a niggle so with Nixon Putt playing in the middle, we knew we might get an injury and we had to eventuate for any injury.
“If Charbs had gone down then Nixon would have gone in the back-row. We needed that cover, Jack Broadbent could go in the middle at 9 so we needed bodies.”
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