{"id":101973,"date":"2025-08-29T23:55:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-29T23:55:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/101973\/"},"modified":"2025-08-29T23:55:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-29T23:55:12","slug":"castleford-tigers-sign-prolific-nrl-winger-in-huge-coup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/101973\/","title":{"rendered":"Castleford Tigers sign prolific NRL winger in huge coup"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img width=\"2400\" height=\"1600\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/OHO7657-2.jpg\" class=\"attachment- size- wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"  \/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>Castleford Tigers have continued their impressive recruitment by signing an NRL winger with bags of experience.<\/p>\n<p>Not only will Mikaele Ravalawa bring plenty of experience, he should also bring plenty of tries with the Fijian international clinical whilst at\u00a0 St George Illawarra Dragons.<\/p>\n<p>He has scored 67 in 98 whilst playing for the Dragons, however, he\u2019s spent the 2025 season on loan with South Sydney Rabbitohs where he\u2019s made just three appearances.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.seriousaboutrl.com\/rugby-league-news-castleford-tigers-sign-nrl-grand-finalist-to-long-term-deal-as-more-signings-teased-107760\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">After signing Brock Greacen and Blake Taafe,<\/a> Ravalawa becomes another overseas signing that director of rugby Chris Chester has managed to convince to sign at the Jungle.<\/p>\n<p>With Ryan Carr incoming as head coach, it\u2019s clear to see that there will be a very new-look Casteford Tigers in 2026 and Ravalawa will potentially be the man bagging the tries for them.<\/p>\n<p>Castleford have confirmed that the 27-year-old has signed a three-year deal, tying him to the Tigers until the end of the 2028 season.<\/p>\n<p>Castleford Tigers\u2019 latest NRL recruit underlines \u2018how serious\u2019 club is<\/p>\n<p>A club statement announced: \u201cThe Tigers are thrilled to announce the signing of Fijian winger Mikaele Ravalawa on a three-year deal, commencing ahead of the 2026 NRL season.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe 27-year-old joins the club from St George Illawarra, bringing with him a wealth of NRL experience. With over 100 first-grade appearances and an impressive tally of 67 tries, Ravalawa is set to be a major asset to the Tigers\u2019 backline.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Speaking on the move, Ravalawa said: \u201cI\u2019m really excited to come and join a new team. I was happy with the way they treated me; everything was really positive.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m looking forward to getting ready to rip-in with the boys and experience a new county for the second time. My strengths are my kick returns and scoring some tries.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m really excited about coming to play for the Tigers, and I can\u2019t wait to see you!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Chris Chester added: \u201cI\u2019m delighted that we\u2019ve able to bring the quality of Mikaele over to the Castleford Tigers for the next 3 years.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think this signing shows how serious we are as a club to get things right on the field for 2026.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMika has a high work rate, great yardage carry and is also a proven try scorer at the highest level.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI know Mika is really excited about joining up with Ryan Carr again and is really excited to taste the experience of playing at The OneBore stadium.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"et\">SIGNED. \ud83d\udd12\ud83d\udd25<br \/>Mikaele Ravalawa is a Tiger!<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/COYF?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">#COYF<\/a> \ud83d\udc2f <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/hvOL3Xcz6b\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/hvOL3Xcz6b<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Castleford Tigers (@CTRLFC) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CTRLFC\/status\/1961473923713044611?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">August 29, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1756254191_292_srl-logo.png\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Castleford Tigers have continued their impressive recruitment by signing an NRL winger with bags of experience. Not only&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":101974,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-101973","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-rugby","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101973","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101973"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101973\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}