Castleford Tigers team up with NRL side Manly Warringah Sea Eagles

The one-of-a-kind partnership is aimed at allowing the Tigers to further improve what they are doing on a day-to-day basis and improve the development of young talent locally coming through.

Both clubs will also aim to provide opportunities for Cas and Manly players on both sides of the world.

“The ultimate goal is to provide excellence across the board within Rugby League and provide the best opportunities within the player development pathways,” said a Tigers spokesman.

Cas will take an academy team to Australia to test themselves against the best in the Southern Hemisphere every two years. The Sea Eagles will accommodate this by making use of their state-of-the-art facilities and securing matches against local teams.

Alongside this, both clubs will be in regular contact to identify players who may benefit from a loan deal to Castleford, in order to gain experience in the Super League environment and the Tigers first team.

There will be regular catch-ups with both academy and first team staff and sharing of coaching and training methods between clubs, including presentations and coaching sessions.

Both clubs will share ideas on how different technologies can benefit player performance and development as well as the sharing and training of software used both in the Sea Eagle and Castleford Tigers set-ups.

On the pitch, meanwhile, Cas suffered a fourth successive defeat when they lost 20-12 to Huddersfield Giants at Magic Weekend and head coach Craig Lingard was left to reflect on a costly first half display.

He said: “It was disappointing, frustrating. It took us 55, 60 minutes to get into the game and do what we talked about doing.

"When we did what we set out to do then it worked. We carried with some aggression and defended with some enthusiasm and intensity.

"We didn’t do that at the start of the game. I think it was 11 sets to three that Huddersfield had with the ball and you can’t do that.

"With the two teams in the league table where we are this game was about the basics and doing it with intensity and a bit of aggression.”

Lingard revealed that Paul McShane was all set to make his comeback from injury against Huddersfield, but decided that his arm was not yet ready for a Super League return.

The key Tigers hooker has played just six matches since June, 2023, largely due to a broken arm and subsequent complications.

McShane recently returned to full training and put himself in a position to be selected for the Magic Weekend date with Huddersfield, only to pull out on the eve of the game.

But he could make his return against Warrington Wolves this Friday or when the Tigers travel to Hull FC the following week.

"Up until four yesterday afternoon he was playing," said Lingard after the Magic Weekend game.

"He'd trained all week and we'd named the team, but he did the team run and felt it wasn't quite right.

"He had a little bit of indecision in his own mind and with the amount of time he's had out, he needs to be right in his own head that he's right to play.

"He didn’t want to let his team-mates down and put himself in a position where he thought he was ready and he wasn't. He wanted at least another week or two before putting his hand up and being ready.

"He was in the team up until yesterday, as was George Lawler but he got ruled out after a late fitness test."