Caretaker coach has to run full gamut of emotion

DANNY Orr admits being surprised by his range of emotions after taking charge of Castleford Tigers for the first time.

The interim head coach – who retired from playing only last season – saw the Tigers end a seven-game losing run with a dramatic 28-26 win over Widnes Vikings.

However, the former Castleford captain could only hold his breath and watch as Widnes’ Patrick Ah Van missed a penalty to level in the last few seconds.

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“Right now I’m happy,” he said afterwards, with the Tigers having trailed 26-16 at the break. “It’s gone from tense as hell with two minutes to go to some massive relief.

“But I didn’t think it would be like that. I honestly didn’t.

“I thought we defended really well in the second half and the boys did really well to keep them pointless. But you always thought ‘come on, hang on, hang on...’

“There’s nothing you can do about it, though. You have got to put faith and trust in the players that they’ll get the job done and, full credit to them, they did. I’m a very relieved and happy man.”

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Orr, who took over from the sacked Ian Millward on Tuesday, revealed young hooker Daryl Clark got off his sick bed to lead a much-improved defensive effort in the second half.

“Daryl has been ill and has not trained all week. He had to go to hospital,” he said.

“My idea was to start with Adam Milner and then get half an hour into the game and bring Daryl on to speed us up a bit. And then for the last 20 minutes bring Milner back on and move Clark to loose forward where he can still cause problems. I thought both of them played really well. They really got us going forward.

James Clare has come in for a bit of criticism this year because he has made a few errors and he knows that, but I thought today he was probably one of our best players. It was an outstanding performance from the young kid so I was really pleased for him.”

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Meanwhile, Widnes chief Denis Betts – who coached Orr while at Wigan – praised his former colleague despite the result.

“I am really pleased for Danny Orr,” he said. “I’ve known him a long time and he’s come up with what we expected and what you thought would happen. He’s got a response from the team.

“Castleford came out with passion and energy and we couldn’t match that enthusiasm.

“We just lost the battle of emotion and attitude. Castleford fed off the crowd and they fed off each other really well.

“We are disappointed with our second-half display. We looked like a side who didn’t want to lose rather than a side that wanted to go on and win the match.”