Craig Lingard is confirmed as Castleford Tigers head coach with Danny McGuire as new assistant

After much speculation on the appointments, both have signed two-year deals with the Wheldon Road club and will begin the task of reviving the club after a disappointing 2023.

Lingard joined the Tigers back in May as assistant coach to Andy Last and combined his job at Wheldon Road with his role as head coach of the Batley Bulldogs.

Since then, he led Batley to Wembley for the 1895 Cup final, which they lost out on in the dying seconds.

However, he has now set his sights on his new role as a Super League head coach and will take the helm straight away as he prepares the squad for pre-season.

Lingard told ctrlfc.com: “I am massively honoured. Something I’ve always aspired to be is a head coach in Super League and I’ve got that opportunity now.

“It has come a little bit sooner than I was expecting, but it’s something I’m going to grab with both hands and hopefully be a success.

"I’m coming in with my eyes fully wide open, it's not a new venue for me and I’ve got a good idea about the workings of the club and with a lot of change in personnel with people leaving and people coming in the bulk of the squad that are staying I’ve got experience of working with those guys.

“I can work a bit more closely with them next year and put my stamp on how I want us to play and the values we want to bring back to Castleford Tigers to make us more successful than we have been this season.”

Lingard’s new assistant will be playing legend McGuire, who has won a plethora of trophies in the game as a player.

He won multi honours as a player with Leeds Rhinos and has enjoyed success at Hull KR where he was assistant coach.

Now, McGuire is looking ahead to a new challenge at Cas and cannot wait to get going.

He said: “I’m really excited about the challenge after a fair bit of speculation but for me it’s about looking forward to working with a really talented bunch of players and a club with history and everything that surrounds Castleford Tigers. I can’t wait to get stuck into it.

"It’s really nice to meet Craig. He seems a really good fella and I’m really excited to work alongside him.

"I’m still fairly early on into my coaching journey with loads to learn and experience so I’m excited to be working alongside somebody who’s achieved so much in the game so I’ll be picking his brains hopefully we can gel really well and work well as a combination.”