Castleford Tigers are a team low on confidence right now, assistant Luke Robinson has claimed when giving his verdict on the club’s disastrous centenary celebration game.
The Tigers turned 100 years old, but they’d celebrate it with one of the worst performances of that century, losing 34-6 to Catalans Dragons with 18 of their opponents points coming in the final 25 minutes following a lengthy delay.
At 56 minutes, the power at Wheldon Road went out, causing a delay of more than half an hour and it was the home side who were caught sleeping when the action got back underway, as Catalans stretched their 10-point advantage to a 28-point one come full time.
“I’m really disappointed. The fans came out in numbers and we should have put a good display on for them,” assistant coach Luke Robinson said at full-time in his post-match presser, shared via tha club’s YouTube channel.
“There was a lot of opportunities in that first half where we could have scored some points, I think Mellor dropped the ball over the line, Keanan on the left edge, but you can just feel the lack of confidence within us.”
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Castleford Tigers urged to be tougher in tough situations
Robinson, who only joined the club just over a fortnight ago, spoke about how evident it was that a lack of confidence was killing Castleford.
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He said: “Obviously, it’s a pretty tough year for the group, as a club, but there just seems to be a lack of confidence there. I don’t think Catalans were very good themselves, I don’t think it was a great advert for rugby league, but we had opportunities. A little more confidence, a little bit more composure, and we could have posted points.
“Probably more disappointing than anything else is during that break it was only 16-6, there was only ten points in it with 20-odd minutes to go. I know there’s been tough times in the club within the group but to capitulate like that in the last 20 minutes was really disappointing.”
It doesn’t mark the first time that the Tigers have shipped a flurry of points, in fact it’s something that former head coach Ryan Carr was often left bemoaning and Robinson pointed to similar matters, mainly that the club need to be stronger when the going gets tough.
“I thought we were really poor, if I’m honest,” he admitted.
“When things go against this group at the moment, they’ve got to find a bit of resolve and resilience. I know they’re had a tough year but when things go against them, we’ve got to be stronger mentally.”
