{"id":469397,"date":"2026-03-11T09:55:18","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T09:55:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/469397\/"},"modified":"2026-03-11T09:55:18","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T09:55:18","slug":"castleford-tigers-unearth-shining-light-as-overseas-recruit-stands-out-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/469397\/","title":{"rendered":"Castleford Tigers unearth shining light as overseas recruit stands out again"},"content":{"rendered":"

\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\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Castleford Tigers may have had a slow start to the 2026 campaign, but one man who has impressed so far is Krystian Mapapalangi.<\/p>\n

The young centre joined the club at the end of January, and has quickly adapted to the English game, becoming one of the Tigers\u2019 most important players.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

His efforts haven\u2019t gone unnoticed by the Castleford boss, with Ryan Carr praising way the the speedster has adapted to his new surroundings.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a great player,\u201d Carr said after the club\u2019s defeat to Leeds Rhinos. \u201cThat\u2019s why we brought him here.\u00a0We knew what we were buying when we bought \u2018Mapps\u2019,\u00a0and I\u2019m pleased for him to be getting better and better every week.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought our left edge did a great job. They created some real opportunities and caused some trouble,\u00a0and then on the flip side defended really well too.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of pleasing parts of that performance,\u00a0but we can\u2019t be satisfied with it.\u00a0We need to be better at certain areas,\u00a0and we know that,\u00a0and we\u2019re going to continue to work hard at it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hull KR\u2019s nightmare, Leeds Rhinos\u2019 dominance and possible Hull FC signings \u2013 Click here to watch the latest episode of the Serious About Rugby League Show<\/a><\/p>\n

Castleford Tigers \u201ccan\u2019t keep making excuses\u201d after latest defeat<\/p>\n

Castleford are one of many clubs in the competition to have a \u2018full-back crisis\u2019 at the minute, with both Blake Taaffe (ACL) and Fletcher Rooney (hamstring) out for the long-term.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

On Cini\u2019s efforts, Carr said: \u201cHe\u2019s obviously playing full-back,\u00a0which he\u2019s learning every week in that position.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought the whole team competed hard.\u00a0They all tried really hard through their body and every collision.<\/p>\n

They\u2019ve got a great back five, Leeds, and I thought we did a fair job at containing them to certain areas of their game.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously there\u2019s improvement in all of us as a group,\u00a0which is frustrating but exciting at the same time\u00a0because I know it\u2019s there and we know when we get to the level we need to get to what we can be.\u00a0But it needs to hurry up as well because we can\u2019t just keep making excuses.<\/p>\n

\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","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Castleford Tigers may have had a slow start to the 2026 campaign, but one man who has impressed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":469398,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-469397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469397","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=469397"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469397\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/469398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=469397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=469397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=469397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}