Castleford Tigers 'challenged every day' as new boss Ryan Carr kicks off with win v Leeds Rhinos

Carr’s reign got off to a winning start when Leeds Rhinos were beaten 26-10 in Brad Singleton’s testimonial game at OneBore Stadium. Tigers fielded a young side, coached by Murrell and he reckoned their tough performance was a credit to the work Carr has done since arriving at the club in November.

“He challenges us every day,” Murrell said. “I knew him when he coached Featherstone and I was at Halifax and to work with him has been really good. Everything is new, it’s his first job as head-coach at the top level, he has brought in his systems and the players have all bought into it. Pre-season has been really good; we all know the test starts when the game comes, but we’ve been training really hard and we’re looking forward to the season.”

Murrell hailed the performances of right-winger Daniel Sarbah and full-back Fletcher Rooney against an equally youthful Leeds and added: “We wanted to put out there what we’ve been learning all pre-season. To see those young kids stick to the plan we put to them was outstanding. We spoke about competing against Leeds, they were champions of the reserves last year so we knew it was going to be tough, but our lads stuck to the plan we gave them and came out with the win.”