Castleford Tigers may have had a slow start to the 2026 campaign, but one man who has impressed so far is Krystian Mapapalangi.
The young centre joined the club at the end of January, and has quickly adapted to the English game, becoming one of the Tigers’ most important players.
Averaging just under 110m per game, the ex-Newcastle Knights man also makes over four tackle busts per match, which all help to get his side on the front foot.
After being a stand-out in defeat to Wigan Warriors, the 23-year-old also made impressive performances against Toulouse, where he scored his fist try and assist, and Huddersfield.
His efforts haven’t gone unnoticed by the Castleford boss, with Ryan Carr praising way the the speedster has adapted to his new surroundings.
“He’s a great player,” Carr said after the club’s defeat to Leeds Rhinos. “That’s why we brought him here. We knew what we were buying when we bought ‘Mapps’, and I’m pleased for him to be getting better and better every week.
“I thought our left edge did a great job. They created some real opportunities and caused some trouble, and then on the flip side defended really well too.
“There’s a lot of pleasing parts of that performance, but we can’t be satisfied with it. We need to be better at certain areas, and we know that, and we’re going to continue to work hard at it.”
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Castleford Tigers “can’t keep making excuses” after latest defeat
Castleford are one of many clubs in the competition to have a ‘full-back crisis’ at the minute, with both Blake Taaffe (ACL) and Fletcher Rooney (hamstring) out for the long-term.
Third-choice Zac Cini stepped into the role once again, moving from his natural position of centre. The ex-Parramatta man has only played full-back seven times in his Super League career, but does have experience in the number one spot from his time in Australia.
On Cini’s efforts, Carr said: “He’s obviously playing full-back, which he’s learning every week in that position.
“I thought the whole team competed hard. They all tried really hard through their body and every collision.
They’ve got a great back five, Leeds, and I thought we did a fair job at containing them to certain areas of their game.
“Obviously there’s improvement in all of us as a group, which is frustrating but exciting at the same time because I know it’s there and we know when we get to the level we need to get to what we can be. But it needs to hurry up as well because we can’t just keep making excuses.
