Castleford Tigers have appointed a new head of performance from one of their Super League rivals.

Gareth Whittaker will lead Tigers’ performance and strength and conditioning department after joining them from a similar role at Huddersfield Giants. The move reunites him with coach Paul Rowley after the pair worked together at Salford Red Devils.

Whittaker previously worked in strength and conditioning at Warrington Wolves, England academy, Featherstone Rovers and the Welsh Rugby Union before linking up with Giants a year ago.

Gareth Whittaker has joined Castleford Tigers as head of performance after spending the 2026 season in a similar role with Huddersfield Giants. Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWpix.com.

Of his move to Tigers, he said: “They talked to me about the vision and what they want to build up here. It fits with my philosophies of what I want to do and there's a lot of exciting things going on both on and off the field, training facility-wise and stuff like that.”

He added: “I worked really closely with Rowls during the four seasons we spent at Salford. I know exactly what his expectations are, how he wants his days to run, how he wants his conditioning to run. It made the decision really easy knowing I know the systems he wants to put in place.”

Though Tigers finished second from bottom in the table this year, Whittaker stressed: “I’m not here to throw everything out and start again because there’s some really good stuff I’ve been unearthing while speaking to the physio staff and coaching team that’s already in place.

“I don’t want to change everything; I just want sit back, have a look at how it operates and how it works and slowly start to put my input into it. I’m just here to try and improve what has already been put in place and build on that really.”