Phoenix Laulu-Togaga’e catches coach Ryan Carr’s eye in Castleford’s win at York
Castleford secured a 24-18 win in the Betfred Super League
Castleford head coach Ryan Carr picked out Phoenix Laulu-Togaga’e for special praise after the 23-year-old full-back orchestrated his side’s return to winning ways with a 24-18 win at York in the Betfred Super League.
Laulu-Togaga’e endured a torrid debut against Hull KR two weeks ago but rebounded well at the LNER Community Stadium as his side fought back from a six-point deficit to clinch a much-needed win with second half tries from Renouf Atoni and Brock Greacen.
Carr said: “He’s a super talent who brings a lot to our game, and being able to spend two weeks with him and getting him to understand our style, he’s fitted in really well and today we unlocked a lot of his strengths.
“I walked away from the KR game and I was really excited because deep down there were a lot of glimpses from that game. Coming into a brand new team on the day is an unreasonable ask for any player, and he is only going to get better in our system.
“He’s got so much ahead of him, which is pleasing. He works very hard on his game and is very diligent, and I’m just going to keep pushing him to work harder and get better, and he’s a joy to have on board.”
Carr praised his side’s mental toughness in what was a tight and scrappy contest, adding: “I feel like today we took a lot out of doing really in tough moments.
“Hopefully we can revisit and reflect on that because we’ve had the opposite happen to us. I want to make sure we highlight those efforts and those moments, because the defensive resolve was something that really stood out for me, especially in that second half.”
York coach Mark Applegarth bemoaned his side’s inability to make their moments count after watching his side slip to their seventh defeat in their last eight top-flight matches.
The Knights muscled their way back from an early deficit to take their hard-earned lead into the interval, but were outfought in the second half in what is becoming an all-too familiar story.
“It’s just about that discipline and composure, and until we fix that we are going to be on the end of some scorelines like that,” said Applegarth.
“I’m not questioning our character and toughness, we’ve just got to get those smarts about what we do. We’ve got to learn to stop making life hard for ourselves.
“We knew there would be some decent highs this season as well as some stinging lows, and this was one of the lows. But we won’t buckle, we’re a pretty tight group and we’ll make sure we learn the lessons together.”