Castleford boss Ryan Carr insists he has seen green shoots of progress from his side already this season, but acknowledged that the Tigers must start picking up wins sooner rather than later.
Carr took charge of Cas ahead of the 2026 campaign, putting pen to paper on a three-year deal at The Jungle.
Including interims, the Australian is the seventh different man to lead the Tigers in Super League since the departure of Daryl Powell at the end of 2021.
And his start to life in the hotseat has been a difficult one, with just two victories in six games across all competitions to date.
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‘We’re giving ourselves a chance, but we’ve got to start taking those chances now’
The Tigers’ only Super League win so far in 2026 came at home against bottom club Huddersfield Giants. Championship outfit Doncaster the only other team they have gotten the better of so far under Carr’s leadership – doing so in the Challenge Cup Second Round.
Saturday afternoon sees the Fords travel to take on a Warrington Wolves side whose 100% record across all competitions this term remains in-tact.
Speaking in his pre-match press conference on Friday morning, Cas head coach Carr said: “I feel as though every game we’ve played, we’ve been in it until half-time or just after. That’s not okay, but we’re competing really well.
“Last weekend (against St Helens in the Challenge Cup), the scoreboard probably didn’t reflect how close that game was for long periods of time. It was 16-4 and we missed a couple of opportunities to score a try which could have made it 16-10.
“We’re giving ourselves a chance, but we’ve got to start taking those chances now, that’s the next evolution of this group and this squad.
“We’re going to go through that growing period and there’s going to be growing pains in that. When we get things wrong, we need to learn from them, which we have been doing… we’ve improved in a lot of areas.
“Through our pre-season games and early rounds, we’ve been adding some strings to our bow, but it’s all part of being a new team and a new group.
“We need to make sure we learn as quickly as possible, that’s going to be the key.”
‘Doing it for full games is what good teams do, it’s what winning teams do’
Cas’ four defeats so far this season have come by margins of ten, 12, 18 and 24 points against Wigan Warriors, Toulouse Olympique, Leeds Rhinos and Saints respectively.
One of four teams with just one Super League victory to their name ahead of Round 5, Carr added: “We’re here to win games, it’s critical at the start of the season, but I’m more focused with how we perform for a full 80 minutes as a group.
“I’m more concerned about what type of team we are, who we are and how we play our rugby for a consistent amount of time.
“We don’t want to be consistently inconsistent where there’s good parts of our game and good halves of footy, but bad halves as well.
“It’s not who we want to be. We’ve got to make sure we keep working hard on that pat of our game, the consistency.
“Doing it for full games is what good teams do, it’s what winning teams do.”
