ANDY WILSON was an interested spectator watching Castleford Tigers secure a 14-0 Challenge Cup victory at Doncaster on Saturday. He spoke to Castleford coach Ryan Carr after the game and here he gives his own and the coach’s reaction to the game.

It was wet, it was cold, and at times his Castleford team had laboured against Championship opposition – affording Doncaster the respect of kicking a penalty in the 69th minute to extend their lead to 14 points.

But Ryan Carr couldn’t have been happier.

“An awesome game for us, yeah – you can take so much out of a game like that,” said the new Tigers coach on the touchline as he waited for a couple of stragglers to return to the dressing room for his post-match debrief.

“I can’t speak highly enough of Doncaster today, they were an unreal opponent, and they’ve got a really good season ahead of them in the Championship.

“For us to get a really good strong opponent with a lot of ex Super League players in their team – I’m just really pleased with how we played.

“I was really impressed with the physicality of the game; it was a proper old school hit-out for us. We wanted to defend well. So to keep a good team to zero is good for us.”

A February afternoon in South Yorkshire was nothing new to Carr, after his impressive season in charge of Featherstone in 2019.

But for the clutch of new NRL arrivals in his squad, this must have felt a long way from the heat and humidity of February pre-season fixtures in Australia – Blake Taaffe, Mikaele Ravalawa, Krystian Mapapalangi, Tom Weaver and Brock Greacen.

“100%, yeah,” added Carr. “You can talk about it but getting out there and doing it is different – what a muddy pitch feels like over here on a cold day.

“We were fortunate we got drawn the Donny game because it’s a good pitch here. But those boys will take a lot out of it.”

After a moving pre-match minute’s tribute to Katie Boyle, wife of the former Castleford forward Ryan, Ravalawa went a long way to winning over the Tigers fans with his first touch, a thunderous charge down the right flank that wouldn’t have disgraced Lesley Vainikolo.

Taaffe, the former South Sydney Grand Finalist who Cas had sent to the season launch in Manchester, had a trickier start, with a couple of errors in the wet – although he still ended in credit after a sharp finish for the Tigers’ second try, and a chip and chase to earn the penalty for 14-0.

But Castleford’s most impressive performers were more familiar Super League names.

Alex Mellor led with intelligence and industry as left side second-row.

Darnell McIntosh looked their most dangerous runner at right centre.

And, most reassuring of all, Liam Hood played the full 80 minutes at hooker – retaining the energy after 64 minutes to force the error which led to the last score.

At 34, Hood is on his ninth club, having made the short move from Wakefield – effectively squeezed out by Trinity’s signing of Tyson Smoothy, and snapped up by Castleford’s director of rugby Chris Chester before Carr’s appointment was confirmed.

Hood definitely isn’t a smoothy, but he remained good value for Daryl Powell last season, as the Trin coach said himself after a personally satisfying win at Warrington. From this angle his dummy-half service has long been a thing of wonder – I remember one game for Widnes against Carr’s Featherstone in 2019, when he ripped Rovers to bits.

“He grew into the game, Hoody,” said Carr, a former hooker himself.

“At the start I know he probably wouldn’t have been happy with how he was travelling, but he’s an experienced player and he figured it out what he needed to tweak on the run, and he had a really good game.

“He got better as it went on, and he fell into his groove again. It’s consistency right, players need time out there and they’re going to get better as a team and individually?

“Chezzie had already arranged that one before I was appointed as head coach but I was really pleased. Hoody’s brought a lot of good leadership qualities to our group in the background, and he’s just a tough competitor, which is what I love about him. That’s how he’s made his whole career, and I feel really fortunate that he’s on our side of the ball.”

Alex Sutcliffe won Doncaster’s official player of the match award, deservedly, but there was courage and quality throughout the home side, as they shrugged off the loss of Titus Gwaze to the sin bin late in the first half to repel any number of Tigers attacks.

Their competitiveness was perhaps surprising after a shock defeat at Midlands Hurricanes last weekend – as one dry South Yorkshire wit noted, “it’s a good job Cas weren’t playing Midlands”.

Perhaps that also affected the attendance, as although all the corporate boxes were sold, the Dons support seemed to be down to the hard core – and the club must have been grateful for the impressive numbers who travelled from Castleford, swelling the gate to a healthy 2,537, and comparing favourably to the support brought to this stadium by many of Doncaster Rovers’ League One opponents.

“Awesome,” Carr said again. “And that’s what we need. We’ve got Wigan at home now, we can shift our attention to that and if we can pack out our home, with how passionate and supportive they are, it just gives us a massive boost.”

So a decent payday for Donny, a contest which their players clearly relished, and a hugely worthwhile exercise for Carr and Cas ahead of the Super League season.

This new structure for the early rounds of the Challenge Cup has so much going for it. Is it too much to hope that the sport sticks with it for a while?