Andy Last admits Castleford Tigers need to toughen up mentally

After showing admirable defence in the opening half the Tigers were in the contest when level at 8-8 at half-time, but could find no way back after Hull scored back-to-back tries inside the opening five minutes of the second period, writes James O’Brien.

The first of those tries was controversial with Chris Satae getting the benefit of the doubt when he crashed over from close range and appeared to have possibly knocked-on.

Decisions like this have not helped Castleford’s cause, but then neither has a trend this season to let in back to back tries with Satae setting up another Hull score swiftly after their first of the half.

Jack Broadbent's try gave the Tigers hope, but he was punished for a knock-on in the next set as another home try effectively condemned Last's men to a third defeat in a row.

The 36-18 loss leaves the Tigers just two points clear of bottom side Wakefield Trinity with eight rounds of the Super League season remaining and little sign of an away win on the horizon – with five of them coming up in the run-in.

"We have to show more resilience," said Last.

“At the kick-off we’re still worrying about not getting the call off the referee, they go back to back and suddenly the scoreboard pressure is on you and we’re chasing the game.

“Even after that we get back in the game, but then we can’t take the kick-off and they score from that. It breaks your momentum.

“We just aren’t quite resilient and tough enough mentally to deal with that pressure and those mistakes.

“When you’re in that confident headspace and in that zone, you don’t let things rattle you. You just get on with the next job and stick to the process.

“But there’s a little bit of negativity and a feeling that everything is against us. We need to be better than that.”

Last still has belief the team can escape relegation.

He insisted: “The last three weeks there have been moments in the contest where we’re right in it, but due to a lack of confidence and playing personnel we haven’t been able to nail them. The good teams do.”

On what went wrong in the Hull game, Last added: “It’s really frustrating. We felt like we were in a good space going in at half-time.

"There were just a couple of things we felt we needed to touch on but we didn’t go out and execute what we spoke about.

"We just had to tidy up our ball control. We were causing them some problems with the shapes we were running and the intent of our carries. But it was that individual decision making – when to go for that offload and when to just take the next tackle.

"I thought there were some really big efforts, but those efforts end up being misplaced when you don’t control the ball.”