{"id":510173,"date":"2026-04-03T04:34:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T04:34:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/510173\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T04:34:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T04:34:12","slug":"castleford-tigers-boss-hoping-to-build-our-club-around-star-signing-as-contract-chats-begin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/510173\/","title":{"rendered":"Castleford Tigers boss hoping to \u2018build our club\u2019 around star signing as contract \u2018chats\u2019 begin"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Castleford\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 are hoping to agree a new long-term contract with Australian back Krystian Mapapalangi.<\/p>\n

The former Newcastle Knights and Wests Tigers man has been one of Super League\u2019s most in-form backs<\/a> during the opening two months of the campaign, despite playing in a team who are second from bottom on the table going into round seven.<\/p>\n

Mapapalangi, 23, joined Castleford in January from Wests Tigers on a two-year deal, having scored five tries in 15 games for New South Wales Cup feeder side Western Suburbs Magpies in 2025.<\/p>\n

Despite having six NRL appearances to his name from his time at Newcastle, Mapapalangi is still a relative rookie at the top level and Tigers coach Carr reckons he will \u201conly get better\u201d.<\/p>\n

Speaking at his weekly preview press conference today (Thursday) ahead of Sunday\u2019s home derby against Wakefield Trinity, Carr said: \u201cWe knew what we were buying, that\u2019s why we went after him. He is a quality player and a quality person.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe love having him here; he is awesome to work with day-in and day-out, the boys love playing with him and love being around him and his company, even off the field.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is just a good kid and he is going from strength to strength. He is only going to continue to get better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Willie Peters, Brad Arthur\u2019s Leeds Rhinos future, RTS and Rivals Round previewed \u2013 Click here to watch the latest episode of the Serious About Rugby League Show<\/a><\/p>\n

Carr stressed: \u201cHe is someone we certainly want to build our club around and make sure we lock down for the future.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are happy he is with us, he is happy here and we just want to make sure we continue to have him in a Cas jersey year on year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carr confirmed he has \u201chad a few chats\u201d with Mapapalangi, but insisted: \u201cIt is not my job to put any pressure on him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just want him to focus on this weekend\u2019s game, which is a massive game for us, but that sort of stuff usually sorts itself out in time.\u201d<\/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 are hoping to agree a new long-term contract with Australian back Krystian Mapapalangi. The former Newcastle…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":510174,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-510173","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\/510173","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=510173"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510173\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/510174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=510173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=510173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=510173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}