Since returning to the Super League in 2008, Castleford Tigers have been reduced to scrapping it out at the bottom end of the table pretty much every year. All that changed in 2014, however when the Tigers finished fourth in the table, playing an exciting high-tempo brand of attacking rugby that brought the ‘Classy Cas’ nickname out of non-ironic retirement for the first time in two decades. They’ll be looking to kick on this season, but will they be looking classy as well as playing classy in 2015? Let’s find out…
The most notable thing about the new X-Blades Castleford home shirt is the colour. Yes, after a few years back in the traditional yellow-y-orange colour, the Tigers are back in full-on you’ve been Tango’d orange this year for the first time since 2006. Other than that, we have a pretty standard, perfectly nice rugby league shirt, with a nice black and white double chevron, and not much else to really remark about.
It’s a bit of a shame really, as we had a real soft spot for the old Castleford colours, and particularly last season’s very striking home shirt, with it’s giant two-tone chevron that took up most of the shoulder. It was such an unusual look, and one we’d have liked to have been developed further.
One more thing about the home shirt – you may be aware that conveniently, XBlades also sponsor NRL side Wests Tigers and well… take a look at their 2014 away shirt… familiar much? We wouldn’t dare suggest that the designer at XBlades saw ‘Tigers’ on the job sheet here and decided to fob them off with a rehash of a year-old kit but uh… well… it’s a bit similar, isn’t it?
The alternate shirt is perfectly nice – you should all know by now that we love us some hoops, and we love us some orange, and while this isn’t the most beautifully executed example of an orange hooped shirt we’ve seen, it’s still pretty lovely, especially when you include the black stripes within the hoops.
We don’t like the weird material XBlades make their shirts out of, however – it’s covered in ventilation holes a-la an American Football shirt, and it gives both jerseys a bit of a weird look to them. That said, both shirts are still perfectly nice and decent, though we have serious reservations about the home shirt being so obviously recycled from the Wests Tigers shirt.
SHIT/GOOD: Reluctantly… GOOD
Rugby Shirt Watch 
