Castleford Tigers: Lee Radford 'envious' of Wigan Warriors' 'steel and stiffness'

His side were defeated 32-12 at the Mend-A-Hose Jungle, despite having the lead at half time.

Radford states the Warriors just never give up, and believes there is a gap between them and his team.

He said: “I didn’t see it coming, but you know it’s going to come if you don’t go with them for 80 minutes. That’s what I had spoken about all this week.

“I watched them against Huddersfield, the week before the cup final, and they could’ve got them in the 79th minute.

“They just don’t go away from you this lot, whether they’ve got their academy or first team out there. They’ve just got that steel and stiffness, that as a coach you are incredibly envious of.

“Clearly there is a huge gap between us and them at the moment. It’s only six points (in the table) but it’s a lot more than that.

“Our inability to be able to get into the trenches when it gets tough, it’s a real concern, that was the case today.

“We’re not consistent, we haven’t been for three years. We’re working really hard to minimise that gap between our best and worst, but six months in, it's going to take a little bit longer looking at the way we are going.

“You get challenged in the game we play, it’s the responses that make the elite the elite, and the weak the weak.”