Young Castleford Tigers cubs sign professional deals

Castleford Tigers have signed a club record 10 players on professional terms from scholarship.

They are Conner Land, Jordan Gill, Ryan Backhouse, Curtis McDonald, Ben Reynoulds, Tommy Newbould, Shaun Pick, Liam Lunn, Zack Snelgrove and Luke Day.

Tigers head of youth development Steve Gill said: "It is vitally important we keep the best players at Castleford.

"I believe that is a sign of the club having a successful scholarship and a very good development system."

Nine of the young players came from the club's own under-16s scholarship side, having this year comprehensively beaten Huddersfield Giants, Bradford Bulls, Wakefield Wildcats, York City Knights and Sheffield Eagles.

Gill added: "We had a lot of competition this year for all our young players, with Bradford, Wakefield, Huddersfield, and Hull FC and Hull KR all offering contracts to our under-16s scholars.

"We also beat off competition this year off Leeds and Wakefield to sign promising centre Luke Day from the Leeds Rhinos club.

"Luke saw the Tigers as the place for him to progress into a Super League player through our Junior Development Pathway.

I see these signings as just reward for all the hard work their community clubs have put in, along with our own scholarship coaches and 1st grade players who work on the clubs scholarship in developing these youngsters

Steve Gill

"The young guys saw the pathway towards playing Super League with Adam Milner, Jonathan Walker, John Davies and Oliver Holmes, Joe Arundel and Jordan Thompson all under the age of 19 and playing Super League this year.

"They could also see the inclusion of Adam Milner and Jordan Thompson in the England Academy set up and how Michael Shenton came though the ranks here and is now a fully established international.

"I see these signings as just reward for all the hard work their community clubs have put in, along with our own scholarship coaches and first grade players who work on the clubs scholarship in developing these youngsters.

"It was evident this year how proud the young guys were in pulling the Tigers shirt on for the first time at both 16s and 15s and this bodes well for the future.

"I'd finally like to thank all our partnership clubs and their coaches for the hours they put in to help develop these and other youngsters in the sport of rugby league.

"Castleford High School for the use of their superb facilities, our scholarship coaches for the fantastic work they do, club scouts Kevin Mcguire and Mick Moffatt and Richard Wright, our chief executive, for once again backing our judgement in the recruitment of these young guys."