Castleford Tigers news: coach announcement timing confirmed as deal offered to 'prefered candidate'

Castleford Tigers will go into tomorrow’s (Saturday) derby against Leeds Rhinos without a head-coach, but expect to confirm their new man early next week.

Director of rugby Chris Chester confirmed he has identified a “preferred candidate” and revealed ex-Salford Red Devils and Huddersfield Giants boss Ian Watson, former Rhinos assistant and Featherstone Rovers head-coach Ryan Carr and Jim Lenihan, who is on the staff at NRL outfit Gold Coast Titans, were among those who applied.

“We’ve had some real positive conversations this week,” Chester said at his weekly preview press conference today. “We trimmed it down to four, interviewed the final two and have a preferred candidate. We are just going through the process now of trying to negotiate a deal. We came to that decision yesterday as a club and a board. I put the two in front of the board and they both presented very, very well.

“It has been harder than I thought, a real tough decision, but we have a preferred candidate, I will let that person know, chat to the agent and try to thrash out a deal. Hopefully we can get everything tidied up this weekend and look at making an announcement at the start of next week.”

Chester said he was “really impressed with all the candidates”. He added: “We got over 20 applicants, some really good UK and overseas applicants. There was obviously Ryan Carr, Jimmy Lenihan and Ian Watson – a lot of good applicants came forward. It’s a massive signing for the club and I’m excited about the guy that’s going to be leading us in 2026.”

The new man is believed to be based overseas. He is expected to arrive at Tigers for the beginning of pre-season in around three months’ time and Chester will continue in his role as interim-coach for the rest of the current campaign.