{"id":487186,"date":"2026-03-21T06:37:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-21T06:37:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/487186\/"},"modified":"2026-03-21T06:37:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-21T06:37:14","slug":"castleford-tigers-boss-addresses-active-recruitment-plans-and-chris-atkin-exit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/487186\/","title":{"rendered":"Castleford Tigers boss addresses \u2018active\u2019 recruitment plans and Chris Atkin exit"},"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 boss Ryan Carr has discussed the club\u2019s recruitment stance after the exit of utility Chris Atkin earlier in the week.<\/p>\n

Atkin, who signed midway through the 2025 season, departed to sign a permanent deal with Bradford Bulls<\/a>. The versatile 33-year-old had not played since round two and had made just three appearances this season.<\/p>\n

His departure will free up more cap space with Castleford<\/a> already having access to 26\/27th of Blake Taaffe\u2019s salary in dispensation after the full-back suffered a season-ending injury in round one, however, thus far the Tigers have only signed free agent Ashton Golding and Wigan forward George Hirst.<\/p>\n

Asked about the club\u2019s recruitment stance, head coach Ryan Carr admitted: \u201cWe\u2019re definitely active. We\u2019re actively looking to add to our squad depth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pushed on what positions are being considered, Carr pointed to the obvious position of full-back but added that depth could be desired in the outside backs.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cObviously, having lost (Blake) Taaffe and Fletcher Rooney to pretty-much season-ending injuries, there\u2019s two full-backs that we went into pre-season that we lost within a week together and we probably need some depth in that outside back region.\u201d<\/p>\n

Castleford Tigers coach talks Chris Atkin exit<\/p>\n

The Cas coach was also asked about Chris Atkin\u2019s departure, however, he removed himself from the situation and explained his focus to be on the team as he hailed the close-knit nature of the group.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s more of a Chris Chester conversation\u201d, Carr said, adding: \u201cI distance myself from the business side of the game because I\u2019m here to coach my players and build relationships with those players.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like to feel like we\u2019ve got a really close-knit group here. I rang Chris (Atkin) and thanked him for everything he has done for us. He\u2019s done his best for me so I couldn\u2019t be anything but thankful for that.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn terms of the business side of things, that\u2019s more a Chezzy conversation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another topic he wasn\u2019t keen to address was if he\u2019d been able to make contact with the RFL for a meeting after last week\u2019s Challenge Cup clash, with Carr having stated the week prior that he had been refused a meeting to discuss refereeing matters<\/a> after their round four loss in Super League.<\/p>\n

When asked if a meeting had happened, Carr said: \u201cI\u2019d rather not talk about that side, I just want to talk about the game tomorrow and focus on Warrington. It\u2019s a big game for us. There\u2019s some great rugby being played at the moment so I\u2019m just going to channel my energy into tomorrow and that\u2019s all I can control.\u201d<\/p>\n

Castleford\u2019s clash with Warrington will be aired live on BBC Two<\/a> on Saturday with coverage starting at 2:45 pm.<\/p>\n

Hull FC under pressure, Huddersfield Giants in crisis and shock Super League predictions \u2013 click here to watch the latest episode of the Serious About Rugby League Show<\/a><\/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 boss Ryan Carr has discussed the club\u2019s recruitment stance after the exit of utility Chris Atkin…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":487187,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-487186","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\/487186","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=487186"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487186\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/487187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=487186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=487186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=487186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}