{"id":97862,"date":"2025-08-28T04:12:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-28T04:12:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/97862\/"},"modified":"2025-08-28T04:12:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-28T04:12:11","slug":"castleford-tigers-injury-latest-as-chris-chester-makes-bold-blake-taaffe-prediction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/97862\/","title":{"rendered":"Castleford Tigers injury latest as Chris Chester makes bold Blake Taaffe prediction"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img width=\"1200\" height=\"812\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/AM10732.jpg\" class=\"attachment- size- wp-post-image\" alt=\"Castleford Tigers\" 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 dir=\"ltr\">New Aussie signing Blake Taaffe could have a similar impact on Castleford Tigers to what Bevan French \u2013 the 2023 Man of Steel \u2013 has done for Wigan Warriors, it has been claimed.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Taaffe, 26, has signed a three-year contract. He was full-back for South Sydney Rabbitohs in the 2021 NRL Grand Final and has played at centre with his current club Canterbury Bulldogs, but could be a half-back option when he arrives at Tigers in pre-season.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Speaking at his weekly preview press conference today (Wednesday), interim-boss and director of rugby Chris Chester said incoming coach Ryan Carr will decide on Taaffe\u2019s role, but predicted he will \u201ccome over here and light Super League up\u201d.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Chester said: \u201cIf you look at the Wigan team, they brought Bevan French over as an out-and-out full-back and he is playing in the halves and was the difference last week. He came back and single-handedly destroyed Wakefield.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cHe came up with some big plays and I think Blake is a very similar player. He is a very accomplished full-back and that\u2019s probably his best position, but he is confident playing in the halves.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cWe\u2019ve got options, we\u2019ve got Tex Hoy and Jenson Windley as well who I am hoping is going to be pushing these guys next year for a starting spot.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Castleford Tigers injury news<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Windley has dropped out of Tigers\u2019 squad for tomorrow\u2019s visit to Chester\u2019s former club Leigh Leopards as Hoy comes back in.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The teenager was \u201cknocked out\u201d in last week\u2019s defeat at Catalans Dragons and Chester confirmed: \u201cHe\u2019s not available and it\u2019ll probably be a couple of weeks for Jenson.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cThat\u2019s the second one he has had in a short space of time, he got one while he was on loan at Sheffield.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cHe was out cold last week so unfortunately he misses a couple of weeks, but it will probably do him a world of good as well.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cHe has only just turned 18, he\u2019s still growing and developing physically and probably needed a couple of weeks off. He\u2019ll come back into our thoughts after the Wakefield game, so for Wigan or St Helens.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Hoy has not played since suffering a calf muscle injury in May. He was due to return against Rhinos two weeks ago, but suffered a setback and Chester said: \u201cHe is playing this week.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cHe has had an issue with his calf that\u2019s been bothering him for a long time, but he is back this week.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Chester stressed Hoy is under contract to Tigers and remains part of the plans for next year, despite Taaffe\u2019s signing. \u201cWe\u2019ve got a really good spine for 2026,\u201d Chester said. \u201cThe coach is going to have a few headaches.\u201d<\/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","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New Aussie signing Blake Taaffe could have a similar impact on Castleford Tigers to what Bevan French \u2013&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13763,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-97862","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\/97862","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=97862"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97862\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}