CASTLEFORD TIGERS went down 34-4 at home to reigning champions St Helens at The Jungle tonight.
The Tigers were overpowered and outenthused in the first-half, with Saints running up a 30-0 half-time deficit before both sides traded just one try.
For Castleford head coach Danny Ward, it was firmly a bump back down to earth in his first home game as Tigers boss.
“I’m very disappointed, losing at home by 30 points is not acceptable for us as a club and a team,” Ward said.
“The boys are feeling that in the dressing room, there were a lot of areas I was happy with. I told the boys at half-time that it was tough to make them believe.
“Some of the things we have bene working on training with detail in tackles, we were nailing that for quite a lot and quite a big periods.
“I was pretty happy, I don’t think the score reflected the game at half-time but it’s St Helens, they showed their class and punished us.
“We are not at that level yet, it tells us where we are and that’s where we have to strive to be. There were some signs there certainly with the fight in the second-half. They showed a bit and if we keep doing that we will be alright.”
The Tigers were hit early on when Will Tate had to leave the field in a boot.
“Will Tate will get x-rayed, he has just come in today to the starting team. He wanted an opportunity, sees it and then it is cut short.
“It is really disappointing. we are all gutted for Will, but hopefully it isn’t too serious. There was a little bit of disruption there putting Jordan Turner on the wing there when he’s been going really well in the centres.
“But Saints executed really well on our left, they put us under the pump but we gifted them a lot of ball and we got punished.”
Ward also explained why Greg Eden and Blake Austin didn’t play after impressing against Wakefield Trinity.
“Blake didn’t quite pull up from the game as we expected. He had an issue in his hip that wasn’t quite right. He wasn’t going to be fully fit so we made that call yesterday and moved Westy (Joe Westerman) into stand-off, I thought he did a great job but then we lost him in the middle.
“Greg picked up a bit of a knock in the game last week, thought he was ok. But he didn’t quite open up and he’s pretty quck is Greg and so when they are not fully opening up in training, there is worry that it could cause more damage.”
Ward was asked about the ruck speed which was painfully slow at times, but he didn’t draw on it.
“We’ve got to deal with the ruck speed better, I’m not going to sit here and talk a bout Saints. They tackled really well, that’s why they are champions.
“They are very good at what they do, they get numbers in and win the tackles. We’ve got to find ways to combat that rather than whinging about what Saints are doing in the tackle.”
The Castleford boss is not looking at Wakefield with the Tigers still just two points in front of Trinity.
“It doesn’t concern me too much, I’ve got to concentrate on what we are doing. wW are focused on next week already
“The crowd were immense, they gave the support through to the end. We wanted to play well in front of our home fans, we need to get that consistency and give them something to shout about.
“I hope they saw a little bit of fight in the second-half.”
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