Coach Danny McGuire reveals Castleford Tigers 'tried hard' to sign Leeds Rhinos star Mikolaj Oledzki

Oledzki ended speculation over his future last month when he signed a deal keeping him at Rhinos until the end of 2028. His previous contract was due to expire at the end of this season, sparking interest from several clubs, including Tigers. McGuire played alongside Oledzki for Leeds in 2017 and admitted Tigers “tried hard” to get him.

“Being in the environment at Leeds, it is really hard to be prised away from that,” the Tigers coach - who won eight Super League Grand Finals with Leeds - admitted. “With recruitment, as long as you give everything, you’ve worked every angle and the financial package is good, that’s all you can do. We put that together as a club and we didn’t quite get it over the line.”

McGuire revealed that has “happened with a few players”. He added: “Mikolaj is not the only one. There’s lots going on and lots of conversations happening and at the minute we’re just not able to get them over the line.

“That’s not through lack of effort, it’s just circumstances at the minute. We’ve just got to keep patient, keep playing well and making ourselves more attractive to players, which will come in time.”

Meanwhile, McGuire has explained on-loan centre Ben Davies’ rapid return to parent club St Helens. Davies made his Tigers debut as a substitute in last week’s golden-point extra-time loss at Hull KR. Castleford face Saints at the Jungle tomorrow (Saturday) and McGuire revealed Davies would have been allowed by the visitors to play, but opted not to. “It was a strange one,” McGuire admitted.

“We had him in on a two-week loan and he had the opportunity to stay and play against Saints, but he wasn’t quite comfortable with the situation. I get that. We can’t afford to have anybody in this environment and in our group that’s not 100 per cent in.

“He had some doubts about playing against his teammates and maybe going back there the week after, so I kind of took it out of his hand and sort of told him to pretty much go back to St Helens. He was good for us while he was here. That short period of time is not ideal in these situations, but we’ve got a few injuries in the outside-backs and need some cover in there.”

Tigers have brought in Lee Kershaw on a similar loan from Hull KR and he is set to feature this week. “I thought he was really good for London last year in a tough environment,” McGuire said of the ex-Wakefield Trinity winger who trained with Rhinos in pre-season last year.

“He is really enjoying his time at KR, but he’s at that stage of his career where he needs to play. We are light in the outside-backs at the minute with Jason Qareqare, Louis Senior going down and Will Tate.

“Some of our younger players are not quite ready at the minute to step into there so we needed some cover, he became available and it happened daily quickly. He joined the group and I think he has slotted in really well.”