Castleford Tigers have appointed England Women Analyst Matty Faulkner as the club’s new Women’s Head Coach and Education and Pathway Manager.
Faulkner has been the Analyst for England Women since 2018 and has spent time in recruitment and player performance roles at both Hull Kingston Rovers and Hull FC.
On the appointment, Faulkner said: “I’m excited to be joining Castleford Tigers, I’ll be doing recruitment for our college programme as Education and Pathway Manager, and as Head Coach of the Women we’re going to build a girls’ programme, so we have a pathway for girls to come through and be Tigers players.
“It’s time for me to move onto something different and try my hand at something new in a new area, give myself another challenge. That is the reason I’m joining Cas, I want to make a difference in what we do, support the coaching team, and lead the Women’s team as best I can.
“I’m hoping we can get Cas Women to where they were, raise some standards, and the girls who are here obviously want to play for Castleford. That is the main thing, you want players to want to play for Cas Tigers and be on that pathway to help Cas win games, get in that play-off picture, and hopefully compete in that top league.”
Faulkner was part of the backroom staff involved in England Women’s 2019 tour of Papua New Guinea and their recent test matches against Wales and France.
He added: “It’s given me some of the best experiences of my life in Rugby League, touring Papua New Guinea and going to France the other month, I’ve really enjoyed working with them.
“A big part of my decision was how easy it is and what a good group of women the players are to work with, it helped make my decision to come to Cas and support the women’s game this way. So, if I can do it from a ground-level up into England, hopefully, we can produce even more England Women’s players coming through at Cas.”
