CASTLEFORD TIGERS thrashed London Broncos 40-0 at The Jungle tonight in a one-sided Super League affair.
The Tigers were red hot from the first whistle, crossing in the second minute through Jacob Miller before a barrage of four tries in 11 minutes made it 30-0 at half-time.
Castleford scored another two tries after half-time and head coach Craig Lingard was happy to say the least: “I’m really pleased, it was a potential banana skin for us and we could quite easily have slipped up.
“I was pleased we didn’t go into it with apprehension. The guys have been really confident all week and prepped really well for the threats they’ve got.
“London score a lot of tries off kicks, we defended that and on the flipside from practicing so much on kicks, we scored a few tries ourselves from them.
“We dropped off a little bit in the last ten minutes and against better opposition we would probably have been stood behind the sticks.
“It was really good to score a lot of points but as a coach you are always pleased when you don’t concede any.
“The attitude was epitomised by Corey Hall right at the end. He could quite easily have given up on that tackle but we were talking about chasing that zero down and I’m really pleased how our effort went through all the game.”
Lingard praised Corey Hall as well as Tex Hoy on their debuts.
“I thought the new boys were great and defensively were really good on that right edge. I thought our back five were outstanding in getting us out of yardage and finishing the tries.
“I think with the players we have brought in and those we have got back from injury, we have presence and strike on the edges and we are a different proposition to what we were a few weeks ago.
“The new guys came into training and it creates that competition and intensity. In the past, it’s almost being a case of if you’re fit, you will play.”
The Castleford boss did feel like his side could have improved after hitting inside the first two minutes.
“I thought that first try impacted us a little bit because we were a bit loose after it. We thought we could go round them but in conditions like that, you can’t really do that.
“I thought Sam Hall and Liam Horne were more direct and aggressive with their carries. You can overcomplicate games, you don’t need to go around them, you go through them first and then you can go around.”
Lingard also explained the decision to take Paul McShane off at half-time and then Jacob Miller with 15 minutes to go.
“It was a case for Paul of him just coming back from a hamstring injury. It felt a little bit tight at the start of the second-half and so there was no pressure in getting him back out there.
“I wanted him to go on for the last 15 minutes when Milky (Jacob Miller) was struggling as he had a knee issue that he had to contend with during the week.
“Milky missed the first two days of training but he put his hand up.”
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