'We let them down, but we'll respond': Ryan Carr's pledge to disheartened Castleford Tigers fans
Castleford Tigers v Bradford Bulls Ryan Carr has promised Castleford Tigers fans they will get a positive response from their team tonight following a “dark day” for the club at Warrington Wolves last weekend.
Cas were thumped 72-6 at the Halliwell Jones Stadium on Saturday, leaving them second bottom in the embryonic Super League table.
Only just able to name a 19-man squad for Thursday’s round-six opener against surprise packages Bradford Bulls, things might get worse before they get better for the Tigers.
But their Australian head coach Carr wants fans to know how badly being ravaged by the Wolves hurt and how this adversity will make them stronger.
“It’s always important that we learn from a day out like that,” said Carr. “We made people accountable, made the players talk and explain themselves for those moments. We certainly didn’t just sweep it under the carpet and say it’s okay.
“It was awful watching it back. I said after the game that’s the worst loss I’ve been involved in. It hurt, it hurt a lot. How hard you work and how much care you have and pride you have for what you do, there’s no other way to describe that hurting.
“The players care. You cannot play like we did for the month prior to that and people say they don’t care, of course they do.
“All we can do it control what’s next. What’s in our hands is how we play on Thursday.”
Cas will be without Liam Hood who has been carrying a knee injury since week one and has been for it be cleared out. Joe Stimson and Jack Ashworth were forced off within four minutes at Warrington for head assessments and are not available.
Carr and his director of rugby Chris Chester have been hammering the phones trying to get a player in before the visit of the Bulls, and whether they do or don’t, he needs the Jungle faithful to be on side tonight.
“We’re on a journey here, I’ve been here for three months, I’m so confident we’re going to get to where we need to get to,” he said. “We will come out the other side of it, but there’s going to be some tough times like last week.
"It’s disheartening for the fans, but at the same time there’s a process going on, we’re doing so much work, non-stop, and we won’t stop until we get to where this town deserves to get to.
“We let them down on the weekend but we’re definitely not going to stop fighting, that’s for sure.
“The boys are fully aware of what went wrong, how dark a day that was for this club. There’ll be a response.”