Jon Wilkin makes Castleford Tigers point following frank Danny McGuire comments
Sky Sports pundit Jon Wilkin puts Castleford Tigers’ struggles down to a deep-rooted lack of resilience and quality. The Tigers fell to their fifth Super League defeat of the season on Thursday night as they were beaten 24-14 by Hull FC on home soil.
John Cartwright’s side were far from their best but they didn’t have to be to see off Castleford with relative ease, despite the Tigers scoring two tries late on to make the scoreline a little tighter. That late fight left Danny McGuire feeling ‘annoyed’, with the Tigers head coach questioning why his side only managed to put things together once the result was beyond doubt.
The Tigers boss went on to speak about his players’ lack of resilience and desperation during the game and a lack of the former is what Wilkin believes is letting the club down, with McGuire at the very start of a project that will take time to complete.
“Inherently his squad do not have resilience and therefore that’s why they spend less on players than any other team,” Wilkin said as part of his post-match analysis on Sky Sports. “I think probably in the league they are the least resilient, skilful bunch of players. I’ve said that right from day one and that doesn’t change.
“It’s not a coaching job here at Castleford, it’s a next year, year after recruitment job. It’s a two or three year process of recruiting different players.
“The players are trying, it’s not a lack of effort, you can’t play rugby league and not try, it’s just whether the quality is there. In a game that was in some parts a little bit stop-start, the quality of Aidan Sezer stood out, the quality of Jordan Rapana stands out and that’s where the difference is. They just don’t have that quality.”
Talking specifically about McGuire’s comments regarding Castleford Tigers’ final 10 minutes of the game, Wilkin added: “I think sometimes it’s easy to believe when you know there’s an inevitability to you losing the game. In minute five, six or eight, when the resilience isn’t there then, I think that’s what is frustrating as a coach, having a crack when the game is gone. I can understand why Danny is frustrated.
“The mistake on the play the ball was massive and games hinge on moments, they do. But five weeks into the season every game can’t hinge on a moment, it’s not all about little moments and ultimately quality will show itself. It does in sport over a long period of time and that’s where I worry about Castleford.”
