Castleford Tigers secured their third Super League away win of the season, defeating Hull FC 18-14 at the MKM Stadium, navigating a challenging week that included coaching instability.
Castleford director of rugby Chris Chester credited his team with demonstrating toughness, resilience, and fight, qualities he felt had been absent in recent weeks. "I thought we were the best side," Chester told BBC Radio Leeds. "We showed some real toughness, some real resilience and some real fight, which is probably what we've been lacking these last few weeks. I'm pleased for the boys after a real tough week and I'm just really proud of them because it's a hard place to come. I think the pressure was off, coming away from home, we could play without fear."
Chester also highlighted the team's response when Hull FC scored, noting a "big play" from Liam Hood that ultimately secured the victory. "They were always going to come back at us and I just liked the response when they scored, the response from the players and Hoodie came up with a big play to get us over the line."
Hull FC interim coach Andy Last expressed disappointment with both the result and his team's performance. "Yeah, a disappointing result, a disappointing performance," Last said to Sky Sports. "We can find a reasonable level for periods in games, like we did against St Helens. Tonight, we didn't start particularly well. We got rolled far too easily up the field and then when we did build a little bit of momentum at the start of the second half, it became a real stop-start affair. So, yeah, disappointed with the result, disappointed with the performance, it's just not good enough."
Last acknowledged the ongoing discussions about next year but emphasized his current responsibilities. "There's been a lot of talk about next year, but you know I've got a job still this year and what we've served up today in terms of consistency, it's nowhere near good enough."
The match saw Castleford Tigers' lineup include Laulu-Togaga'e, Ravalawa, Mellor, Mapapalangi, and Senior in the backs, with Asi, Weaver, Atoni, Hood, Lawler, Lane, Hirst, and Stimson in the forwards. Interchanges for Castleford were Ashworth, Robb, Dupree, Brown, and Hall. Hull FC's team featured Moy, Barron, Litten, Romano, and Martin in the backline, with Arthur and Sezer controlling the halves. Their forwards included Ese'ese, Bourouh, Hill, Batchelor, O'Neill, and Bell, with Cust, Lisone, Salabio, and Sao on interchange. The referee for the match was James Vella.