Zac Cini: The lowdown on Castleford Tigers’ new NRL recruit, including positional versatility

Castleford Tigers have announced their first signing for 2025 in the shape of Zac Cini from NRL outfit Parramatta Eels.

Cini, 24, has put pen to paper on a two-year deal at The Jungle spanning 2025 and 2026.

He will arrive in the UK in time to join Craig Lingard’s squad for pre-season ahead of next season.

Here, we bring you the lowdown on the Tigers‘ new recruit…

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Zac Cini: The lowdown on Castleford Tigers’ new NRL recruit

Born in Sydney on May 24, 2000, Australian ace Cini is of Maltese descent.

The youngster was educated at St Dominic’s College in Penrith, and came through the Panthers’ youth ranks – featuring in their SG Ball (under-19) title-winning team in 2018.

That same year, he made the Australian Schoolboys team.

Standing at six feet and two inches tall, Cini went on to join boyhood club Wests Tigers having grown up idolising Benji Marshall and the team which won the 2005 NRL Grand Final against the North Queensland Cowboys.

At the age of 20, the youngster began 2021 plying his trade in the New South Wales Cup – a competition he’s now amassed a total of 73 appearances in.

But come May, just a few weeks before his 21st birthday, Cini was thrust in for a first-grade NRL debut against St George Illawarra Dragons.

Scoring a try on his senior bow in a 16-8 triumph, he would go on to make three further NRL appearances that year, with the last coming on September 5.

Cini has not made a senior appearance since then, at least not competitively. Released by Wests at the end of 2021, he had joined NSW Cup outfit Newtown Jets for 2022, but linked up with Parramatta before the campaign began.

He’s scored two tries in three pre-season games for the Eels at first-grade level across the last two years, but otherwise been adding to his tallies at second-grade level for their reserve side for three seasons, scoring against the Jets in 2023.

The 24-year-old has now accrued a total of 31 career tries in the NSW Cup, one for Wests and 30 in an Eels shirt.

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Cini’s position versatility

A quick glance at Cini’s statistics show he’s very comfortable playing at full-back and at centre.

He’s had the #1 role for 14 of the 20 games he’s played for the Eels’ second-grade side this term having spent the vast majority of his short career so far occupying either the #3 or #4 shirt.

37 of his first 59 games in the NSW Cup were at centre, and he scored 17 tries from there.

10 in 29 at full-back overall isn’t a bad return either, and when he was thrust in for his NRL debut, his try for Wests against St George came while out on the wing.

Eight career appearances on the wing overall have yielded five tries. Again, not a bad return whatsoever.

And lastly, in the penultimate game of the Eels’ 2023 NSW Cup campaign, Cini jumped into the halves, occupying the stand-off role.

That was a one-off, but it would appear that Castleford have snapped up the ultimate utility back, able to score from anywhere on the field. And one that’s desperate for some regular game time at senior level to ignite his career.

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