{"id":433986,"date":"2026-01-24T07:44:23","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T07:44:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/433986\/"},"modified":"2026-01-24T07:44:23","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T07:44:23","slug":"nrl-centre-trades-tigers-for-tigers-in-club-switch-nrl-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/433986\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL centre trades Tigers for Tigers in club switch – NRL News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Young Wests Tigers<\/a> centre Krystian Mapapalangi<\/a> will still line up for the Tigers in 2026 – just not in Australia<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The 23-year-old has confirmed he will join the Castleford Tigers<\/a> in the English Super League<\/a> on a two-year deal, cutting short his time with the NRL’s joint-venture version.<\/p>\n

The versatile outside back made his NRL<\/a> debut in 2022 with the Newcastle Knights<\/a> off a development deal at the time, playing six games before departing the club at the end of 2024.<\/p>\n

He then moved to the Wests Tigers<\/a> in 2025, but couldn’t breakthrough into Benji Marshall’s 17, spending the year in reserve grade instead.<\/p>\n

He will now move to England<\/a> and look to expand his experience in top level footy, joining former St George Illawarra Dragons’ assistant and interim head coach Ryan Carr’s side for 2026 and 2027.<\/p>\n

“I’ve heard plenty of great things about the club, who pride themselves on hard work as a blue collar town,” the outside back said in a club media release confirming his signature.<\/p>\n

“I’m looking forward to playing high-level footy against some great players in this competition. Also playing in front of the passionate Castleford fans, I’ve been told their support is unreal!”<\/p>\n

Mapapalangi is just the latest in a string of signings for the club, with Blake Taaffe<\/a>, Semi Valemei<\/a>, Mikaele Ravalawa<\/a>, Tom Weaver and Renouf Atoni<\/a> all joining with ex-NRL experience, joining other ex-NRL players Zac Cini<\/a>, Daejarn Asi<\/a>, Joe Stimson<\/a> and Brock Greacen<\/a> at the club.<\/p>\n

Carr said his roster is starting to take shape.<\/p>\n

“I’m really pleased to see this deal over the line, it’s been one we have been discussing since I arrived at the club. Maps has got all the attributes needed to succeed in the Super League<\/a> and he’s another great addition to the squad,” Carr said.<\/p>\n

“The squad is taking shape, I believe we have a lot to be excited about in 2026 and this latest addition only gives me more confidence in what we are building here in Cas.\u201d<\/p>\n

Director of football Chris Chester said the signing has been in the works for a number of weeks.<\/p>\n

“Krystian is a player we identified a number of weeks ago. He’s an athletic centre who has experience in the NRL<\/a> and NSW Cup<\/a>. On top of all that he’s a great person and a player I know Carry can take to the next level,” Chester said.<\/p>\n

“We’ve taken our time with this signing to make sure it’s the right fit for all. “<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Young Wests Tigers centre Krystian Mapapalangi will still line up for the Tigers in 2026 – just not…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":433987,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-433986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=433986"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433986\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/433987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=433986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=433986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=433986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}