Director of rugby Chris Chester is seeing the positives of Castleford Tigers’ start to the new Super League season.
The Tigers were disappointed to lose their first two matches against Wigan Warriors and Toulouse before bouncing back with a victory over Huddersfield Giants and Chester believes a patient approach is going to be needed as the new team and new head coach are given time to bed in.
“We’re certainly not losing any faith – it’s a new team and a new coach and these things take time,” he said.
“For me it’s concentrating on the positives. I’m immensely proud of the efforts we put in against Wigan and it was a fantastic atmosphere at the OneBore Stadium.
“We obviously picked up the injury for Blake Taaffe and we’ve been told it’s a season ending. He’s had the surgery and despite what’s happened he’s still in good spirits.
“Blake will still play a big part in our 2026 campaign. He’s a real bubbly character and we love having him around. The lads are really tight and Blake’s been overwhelmed with the support he’s received from the players, from the staff and everyone around Castleford.
“There’s lots of things to learn from the Toulouse game and just looking at some of the decisions I made in terms of how we travelled, 13 hours the day before a game isn’t ideal and a 12-and-a-half hour trip back home.
“One was via Munich and the other via Frankfurt and if I had my time again, I probably wouldn’t have chosen that travel so we can all hold our hands up a bit, but we certainly don’t use that as an excuse.
“It’s probably something for the RFL to look at – at this time of year there’s no direct flights from Manchester to Toulouse. The trip that we chose was the trip that we thought was going to take the least amount of time but there were some delays at Munich airport.”
Chester explained the reasoning behind the recent signings made by Castleford.
He added: “We’d agreed with Ashton Golding before the injury to Blake and we see him as a nine/13. All of his best games in the last couple of years have been when he’s been playing in the middle of the park.
“He’s a very, very energetic character and one that the lads will feed off, a good bloke to have around the dressing room.
“We brought George Hirst in for a bit of depth, for a month. He’s had a few 12 months with Wigan and hopefully he’ll get an opportunity.”
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