ONE of his coaching staff was roughly shoved by one of his star players on national TV but when Castleford coaching director Chris Chester was asked whether the match against St Helens had got nasty, he replied: “It didn’t really”.
In some of the most dramatic scenes of 2026 in Super League, Saints half Jackson Hastings was sent off for punching Tigers prop Tyler Dupree near the end of the first half in the home side’s 36-12 win at Brewdog Stadium.
Dupree was dispatched to the sin bin and when he reached the tunnel, Castleford assistant coach Scott Murrell apparently tried to block his way as he pursued Hastings. Dupree could be seen on TV coverage jostling and pushing his own assistant coach.
Saints finished the game with 10 men, Christ Matagi and Alex Walmsley sent to the sin bin.
“It didn’t really,” Chester said when asked by Sky Sports if events “got tasty” after Hastings’ sending off.
“Scott Murrell just jumped (in the way of Dupree). We all know the rules: you can’t punch people in the face.
“We’ll let the disciplinary deal with those kinds of things. That’s what they’re there for.”
Speaking about the incident later at the media conference, Chester said: “You can’t go around punching people.
“It’s clear to everybody that there were some punches thrown.
“I’m not sure what happened down the tunnel either because I’m sat upstairs….
“I didn’t see a great deal of the incident down the tunnel. Yeah, it’s not a good look.”
Asked whether he expected Dupree to be charged, Chester said: “I don’t know because I don’t know what Tyler’s meant to have done.
“The referee’s obviously seen Jackson throwing punches. Tyler’a adamant that he didn’t throw any punches.
“You know you can’t throw punches, you know you can’t hit late off the ball and we were probably as guilty as what Saints were.
“I just thought it was an ugly game, wasn’t it? An ugly two-minute period before halftime.”
Caretaker St Helens coach Eamon O’Carroll said of the dust-up between Hastings and Dupreee: “I’ve not seen it.
“It happened in backplay, didn’t it?
“I asked the official as I walked down, I walked past him, I said ‘mate what happened, just so I know’ and he just said that Jackson had thrown a punch.
“We’ll have a look at it but in the moment you think about what’s next.”
