Castleford Tigers boss Craig Lingard has challenged his players to back up the desire and effort they showed in a narrow defeat to Wigan Warriors when they take to the Mend-A-Hose Jungle pitch again on Thursday night.
The Tigers were only edged out 10-8 by the world champions as they produced a much improved performance from their previous game, but now need to make that a consistent level according to the head coach, who is looking for another committed display against Hull KR.
Lingard said: “We’ve been here before where it looks like we’ve taken a step forward. But we can’t have a step back again – we’ve got to have the minimum expectations that this is the effort we’ve got, this is the desperation we’ve got to save tries and work for our mates.
“That’s the stuff we can control and we need to get better at week on week.
“The challenge now is to back that effort, that desire and the desperation up on Thursday.
“We’ve got to be more consistent in the games we’ve got coming up.”
Lingard was frustrated to lose to Wigan for the fourth time this season, but pleased with aspects of his side’s display.
He explained: “One thing we talked about when we held our mid-season review was trying to be a team that won’t go away.
“Too many times this season we’ve been too easy to get on top of. When it’s got into a set-for-set arm wrestle, we’ve always been the one that’s cracked first.
“We’ve said that for this second part of the season we’ve got to try and be that team that just doesn’t go away, whether it’s minute one or minute 80 we’ve got to be desperate to save tries by any means necessary.
“It might be that you’re a middle defender or a centre that’s got to scramble it might be a winger that’s tracked to the other side of the field – you just do what’s necessary to get back to your shape as soon as you can.
“In that respect, I’m really pleased and proud of the boys for their efforts – but we can’t help but think it’s an opportunity missed to get two points on the board.
“The players expressed their disappointment and frustration at not getting over the line, but we talked about minimum standards and the stuff that we can control which is the bare minimum of effort, commitment, desire and intensity.
“That’s not a skillset, that’s a you thing and you can decide yourself if you are going to be intense, if you are going to be aggressive or enthusiastic. It’s all down to you as an individual.
“We’ve sort of put responsibilities on people. I told Liam Horne before the game I wanted him to lead the line speed and asked who was going to go with him – and I thought our yardage ‘d’ was really good, we were aggressive and tried to get under their skill a little bit. Just put them under a bit of pressure because previously we’ve been a bit too passage coming out of yardage ‘d’.
“There were a lot of good words said but we need to make sure we put them in action because unless you do something about the words it’s pointless.”
‘Exciting’ talent Tex Hoy gives Castleford Tigers a boost by committing to the c…
Lingard praised full-back Tex Hoy and forwards Sylvester Namo and Matty English for their performances.
He added: “Tex is a threat out of the back and he gives us a bit of a different attacking dimension.
“He finished his try really well and used Jacob Miller on his inside as a great foil.
“With Sylvester, he’s still getting the minutes in his legs and he still needs to be more impactful for longer so we need to make sure that his minutes increase and he will only do that by playing.
“When he first started playing his game minutes were quite low but he’s getting better and better as the season goes on.
“We have to keep riding him at times, his body language when he’s getting towards the end of his spell needs to be a bit better.
“The last two or three games he has been quite impactful with his carries and I am hopeful he is going to get better as the season progresses.
“Matty English did what he always does, he says himself he bases his game on effort and enthusiasm and doing the one per cent stuff that his teammates like.
“You could tell the impact he had off that rotation bench, he really solidified us and made us better when he came on.”
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