Castleford Tigers appoint Danny Wilson to new director of rugby operations role

Wilson has been with the Tigers since 2021 when he was appointed as head of rugby & development. Previously he had been England Academy head coach & Yorkshire Origin coach.

He will now be stepping into a new role that will see him move out of coaching to oversee first team recruitment as well as Castleford’s youth development pathways.

Wilson told castlefordtigers.com how excited he was to be given his new opportunity:

“I’m very excited at what it means for me and what it means for the club.

"When I first came in, as well as being the assistant coach of the first team, my role entailed looking after the youth pathways and getting the licence back, which we did.

“My eyes will be on the future of Castleford Tigers from first team level downwards and making sure we have a conveyer belt of talent and a wide range of pathways.

"Ultimately, I’ll be making sure our first team environment is strong, rebuilding our culture and making sure that we get players in who want to play for Castleford Tigers.”

With the recent addition of newly appointed assistant coach Craig Lingard to the Tigers’ backroom team, Wilson commented on how he will add valuable expertise to what is an already vastly experienced staff who also carry international representation.

“We’ve got some great coaches in now that are going to take the club forward,” he explained.

"We have got some great talent on the field and off the field. Rob Nickolay, who is our head of youth, is Yorkshire head coach and gets to compare the best in the country with ours as well as our strength and conditioning coach Adam Whitney who is with England Knights. We obviously have Andy (Last) at the top with Matty (Crowther) who are representing the England men’s senior team.

“The appointment of Craig (Lingard) also shows that aim of bringing in young British talent, Craig is certainly that. He’s done his apprenticeship in the Championship and proven to have got a lot out of his players. Andy is really looking forward to working with him because they’ve got a similar mind on how they do things.“We have got talented staff that work for us which is something to be proud of and it bodes well for our future.”