MARTYN SADLER reflects on Castleford’s impressive victory on Friday night under new coach Danny Ward.
So the pundits got it wrong again!
Like most of them, I tipped Wakefield to win this crucial game, basing that decision on their record of winning their last four home games and Castleford’s run of bad form.
What I completely underestimated was the influence of a new coach on a struggling team and some inspired signings.
Castleford decided to follow the template created by Wakefield and John Kear in 2006, when the then relegation-threatened Trinity decided to appoint Kear for the final six matches of the season.
It’s not easy to remember clearly now, but they sacked their previous coach Tony Smith (the former international star, not the current Hull FC coach) following four straight defeats.
Smith was sacked on Monday, 17 July 2006 after, in his last game in charge, Trinity suffered a 26–20 defeat against Huddersfield after squandering a 20-point lead.
A week later they appointed former Hull coach Kear and the rest is history, as they say.
Will Castleford now emulate them?
The parallels do look uncanny, right down to the final opponents before sacking their coach. It was again Huddersfield who sealed a coach’s fate, this time Andy Last’s two weeks’ ago, although the scale of their defeat, at 28-0, was far more emphatic than Trinity’s 17 years ago.
Being a good coach is a combination of being able to apply technical and tactical knowledge, while also being able to motivate players to perform.
John Kear was always known for being a strong motivator in the dressing room and I get the feeling that Danny Ward has similar qualities.
Andy Last was undoubtedly a strong technical coach, but sometimes he seemed to carry the weight of the world on his shoulders and I suspect that feeling communicated itself to his players. Andy never looked totally confident and perhaps the players got that feeling from him.
Ward, on the other hand, has a cheerful demeanour that probably helps team spirit, while combining that with a steely resolve.
Four years ago at the same ground he narrowly failed to keep London Broncos in Super League and on Friday night he was clearly determined to not fall down again.
It’s the first time he has coached in Super League since that fateful night but if the Broncos had won that game and stayed in the division, I reckon Ward would have remained in Super League ever since.
Castleford also made a very smart move in recruiting Blake Austin to partner Jacob Miller at halfback, allowing Jack Broadbent to drop back into the centre. Austin had his left thigh heavily bandaged, which must have led to some trepidation among Castleford fans before the game, but he played a strong role in their victory and is clearly a player for the big stage.
Their other smart recruit was Lebanese international Charbel Tasipale, who they recruited from the Newtown Jets, the NSW club that acts as a feeder for the Cronulla Sharks. He didn’t manage to make an appearance for the Sharks, but given his performance against Trinity on Friday night it’s tempting to wonder why.
And on the subject of confidence, wasn’t it good to see Greg Eden back to his best, scoring three tries for the Tigers at crucial times.
We all know that Greg can blow hot and cold and can occasionally make schoolboy errors, but when he’s on the money, he’s wonderful to watch and it was Wakefield’s misfortune that on Friday night he was one of the players who seems to have been inspired by his new coach.
Wakefield were unlucky to have a try by Josh Griffin disallowed for a technicality when Matty Ashurst was offside and didn’t move away from the play.
They were also unlucky when Tom Lineham’s try was disallowed for the most marginal of forward passes.
So it was probably a good thing that the final margin of victory was 16 points, making the debate about those tries purely academic.
With both sides now having five games remaining, the question is whether Wakefield can register two more wins than Castleford, which they will probably need to do, given that they have a 38 points worse scoring difference than their rivals.
The remaining fixtures for both clubs are set out below.
Trinity have three home games remaining, while Castleford have only two, and if they are to overtake their neighbours, they will probably need to win at Salford this weekend, while hoping that St Helens can do them a favour by winning at Castleford.
If the precedent from 17 years ago is anything to go by, then we can expect to see the Tigers climb out of trouble.
Wakefield
25 August: Salford (A)
3 September: St Helens (H)
8 September: Catalans (H)
15 September: Leigh (A)
22 September: Hull KR (H)
Castleford
25 August: St Helens (H)
2 September: Warrington (A)
8 September: Hull FC (H)
15 September: Wigan (A)
22 September: Leeds (A)
