Castleford Tigers coach Craig Lingard
Coach Craig Lingard reflects on Castleford Tigers' Magic Weekend loss to Huddersfield Giants.
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00:00Disappointing, frustrating. I think it took us 55-60 minutes to get into the game and do what we talked about doing.
00:07When we did what we said we were going to set out to do, then it worked. We carried on with some aggression and defended with some enthusiasm
00:15and intensity about us and got into the process of a rubber league. A rubber league is a real simple game.
00:20It's that process and you earn the reward. It's a really easy game but if you don't do that, if you don't start the game,
00:28I think you're 11-6-3 at the other side of the ball. You can't do that. You can't start a game like that.
00:34You can't be 18 points down before you ultimately decide that we're going to do what we talked about doing, what we prepped about doing all week.
00:41We said this game wasn't a game about the classic plays or the skillful execution.
00:47With the two teams in the league table where we are, this game was about the basics.
00:52Doing it with intensity and enthusiasm and a bit of aggression about you and the team probably did that better than the other one when we won.
00:59I always feel we did that really well in that first 15-20 minute period and got the rewards.
01:04It took us a good 45-50 minutes to get into the game.
01:08Did you put that slow start down to anything?
01:11No, I think you can put your finger on it. We prepped all week as we always do.
01:16I just think it was skill, execution and a game plan better than what we did.
01:20I think when you get rattled a little bit early on and you try and play round the team, which is what we did,
01:26instead of being direct and trying to generate some quick play rewards,
01:29we identified to try and go through their middles and get a man on the retreat and play quick and adopt the space that was created by that retreated defender.
01:37When you're defending for a long time, you sometimes look for short cuts.
01:41Short cuts more often than not just look for that wide play and that expansive play, which ultimately didn't work.
01:47It was easy for us to defend against them at half-time and shut us down.
01:50We just needed to be real basic and get back in the grind and get back into the process.
01:55Whether you're bored for five or ten minutes and get into that set-for-set mentality and try and dominate the field position, which we didn't do.
02:05The positive to the fight back was on up until the point when Joe Weston knocked the ball off.
02:10Did you feel the game was there for you at that point?
02:13Yes, I thought we were in the ascendancy at that point.
02:15We got two tries on the bounce and we looked good because we were doing what we said we were going to do,
02:21which was be direct and be aggressive and play fast and defend with some aggression about us.
02:27That's what happens when you get into the process in the league.
02:31I always say to these guys, the more often you do the right things, the luckier you get.
02:34The more mistakes the opposition make, the better your execution becomes.
02:39That's what happened in that period of time.
02:41You just have to tell yourself what to do to start playing.
02:45The positives are that the game went for us for 80 minutes.
02:48We played up to the 80th minute.
02:50We didn't play the first 40, really, did we?
02:52We played up to the 80th minute and were in with a chance up until the penalty goal.
02:57We just need to learn our lessons a little bit sooner and start faster than what we did.
03:01How close was Paul McShane to playing tonight?
03:04Up until four o'clock yesterday afternoon he was playing.
03:08He trained all week and we had the team on yesterday and he did the team up.
03:13I just felt he wasn't quite right.
03:16He had a little bit of indecision in his own mind.
03:22I think with that time he's had out, he needs to be right in his own head.
03:26He's right to play.
03:27He didn't want to go into a game where he didn't want all his teammates down.
03:31He didn't want to put himself in a position where he thought he was ready and he wasn't.
03:34He wanted at least another week or two before putting his hand up and being ready and being available.
03:40We were in the team until yesterday.
03:42That's what's George's law.
03:43He's too late for this test.