Time to get tough: Castleford Tigers boss Danny McGuire makes 'ruthless' vow after loss v Huddersfield Giants

McGuire was left fuming following Tigers’ 30-12 home loss to Huddersfield Giants in a game when all their points came in a brief spell just before half-time. Having been within seven minutes of a famous victory against champions Wigan Warriors in their previous match, Tigers were outplayed by the side sitting second-bottom in the table, who had won just two of their opening 16 Betfred Super League fixtures.

A “really disappointed” McGuire conceded his side failed to perform in what he felt was a poor advert for the competition. He said: “I am trying to help the players get better and work with the players I’ve got, but maybe I have to be a little bit more ruthless and make some tough decisions. It is a cut-throat business and for us to get better we probably need to be a bit harder on some things.

“When you get a performance like last week, it gives you that hope they are getting there. You feel let down at times because the players don’t do it again the week after, but we are all in it together - I’m just as much to blame as the players for [Thursday’s] performance.”

Despite having Zac Woolford sin-binned after less than 60 seconds, Giants eased into a 12-0 lead before George Lawler crossed for Tigers on 36 minutes and Zac Cini touched down three later to square the scores at the break. That, though, was as good as it got for Castleford.

“It was a really flat performance and we didn’t really do anything we spoke about doing,” McGuire added. “I think the early sin-bin didn't help us - we probably thought it was going to be easy.

“I don’t think we were prepared to do some of the tough stuff. Huddersfield were the better team in a really poor game. We just can’t seem to string back-to-back performances together and it’s really frustrating. It’s one step forward and a few back every time now. We need to find some consistency and not think it’s just going to happen.”