Sam Hall signs extension

Castleford Tigers are delighted to confirm young forward Sam Hall has signed a two-year contract extension, keeping him at The Mend-A-Hose Jungle until the end of the 2024 season.

The 20-year-old, sponsored by JP Plant Hire, is a proud product of the Tigers’ youth system and has been with the club since he was fourteen. Sam has come through our Scholarship and Academy ranks, making his debut with the First Team during the 2020 season against Wigan Warriors aged just seventeen and has made five senior appearances to date.

A standout performer in the Academy ranks, Hall will continue his development at Wheldon Road and has been gaining valuable experience in the Reserves competition too, where he has been named the side’s captain on several occasions.

“I’m over the moon, I’m really glad to be here for another two years! I’ve been here since Scholarship now, so coming up to five years nearly at the club,” Hall said to castlefordtigers.com.

“I feel very much at home, I like the environment and the players. When you come in and everyone makes you feel welcome, you just want to be here, there was never any doubt, I wanted to stay here.”

As a young, hot prospect for the Fords, Hall is still eager to keep learning from his fellow forwards in the pack and speaks highly of all his teammates.

“The players that we’ve got here this year, the depth of the forwards that we’ve got in the team, for someone like me who is not playing loads at the minute I’m able to learn off them, it’s really good. 

“Westy (Joe Westerman), Wattsy (Liam Watts), Massey (Nathan Massey), it’s learning different bits off everyone. Obviously, Westy is ball playing, we’ve got Smiggy (Daniel Smith) and Wattsy running the ball in and it’s all these bits that I can add to my game.”

The Castleford Head Coach was an incredibly fierce forward himself and Sam has thoroughly enjoyed working under Lee Radford in 2022.

“Lee’s been really good, him being a forward he’s giving me tips, little stuff and if I do something wrong, he comes straight over and lets me know what I can improve on. All these little bits that I can improve are only going to develop my game.”

Hall becomes the third talented Tigers youngster to commit his future to Castleford in recent weeks, with Cain Robb and Jason Qareqare too signing contract extensions keeping them at the club until 2024.

“I think it’s really good, there are some older faces in the camp but these younger players who I’ve been coming up through it’s good to see their faces in there as well.”

Now with his future confirmed for the next two years, his own aims are clear: develop and gain more top-flight match minutes.

“I feel like it is just getting more Super League games under my belt, I’m still quite young and still got some development to go but with the depth of the forward pack we’ve got, it’s quite hard to get in the team at the minute. But if I just keep learning and try to get in that squad, we’ll take it from there.”

Castleford Tigers Head Coach Lee Radford commented about the contract extension and said: “There is some real talent there, Sam has a smart football IQ and a great skill set, he plays in a position where there is a genuine pathway for him at the club and we need to physically get him up to speed as a week in, week out Super League front-rower.

“He’s intelligent, he’s doing a university degree at the moment too, a smart kid, but his challenges will be physical over the next couple of seasons.

“I’ve said previously that making the age of our squad younger is highly important, that is all dependent on the market too, so to get our first three pieces of retention as three young fellas renewed clearly fits into that plan.”