Castleford's relegation from Super League was confirmed on Sunday when Widnes earned the right to meet Hull Kingston Rovers in the LHF National League One Grand Final.

The Tigers' lifeline was finally snapped when Whitehaven, who are ineligible for promotion, lost 24-20 to Widnes in the final eliminator at the Halton Stadium.

Both the Vikings and Rovers fulfil the requirements for Super League and will meet in the Grand Final at Warrington next Sunday to decide which club takes the place of Castleford.

Confirmation that their fate is sealed will now trigger the break-up of the Tigers side, with all Super League contracts becoming null and void.

Widnes boss Steve McCormack managed to get one over his old club with Sunday's thrilling victory. He steered Whitehaven to two successive finals before making the switch to Halton Stadium.

Whitehaven's Spencer Miller opened the scoring after two minutes with an opportunist try and Carl Rudd knocked over the conversion from the touchline.

But Widnes hit back with tries from hooker Mark Smith and wingman Damien Blanch, with Gavin Dodd adding the extras.

The try of the game came on the half-hour mark as Blanch broke the Whitehaven defence to pass to Dodd who raced in to seal a 70-metre Widnes move.

Leroy Joe got Whitehaven back into it when he touched down, but John Gleeson soon restored order for the Vikings with a controversial touchdown.

Tries from David Seeds and Miller set up a tense finish but the Vikings managed to hold on.

McCormack said: "I always expected a tough game today and we certainly got that.

"Whitehaven are a very good side and it took a Ryder Cup effort from us to get us through.

"Hull KR will be a hard game next week but it's going to be a great final and if you can't get up for that game then you should not be in rugby league."

Whitehaven head coach Dave Rotheram said: "It was an outstanding game and that in itself was worthy of a final.

"I will be supporting the Vikings next week as I have a lot of links to Widnes players who I've coached in one way or another and I will be wishing them all the best in the final, especially Steve McCormack who is a great coach."

Swinton Lions reached the National League Two grand final in dramatic style. Chris Hough dropped a goal in sudden-death extra time to give Swinton a 27-26 victory over Welsh club Celtic Crusaders.

Other than the first 10 minutes when Swinton went 10-0 up, there was hardly any daylight between the two teams.

It was 10-10 at half-time and the Crusaders thought they had the game in the bag when they went 26-20 up with five minutes of normal time left.

However Swinton loose forward Lee Marsh scored a late try, converted by Liam McGovern, to level things at the end of normal time.

Neither side managed to score in 20 minutes of extra-time, meaning the match went to sudden death with the first team to score going to the grand final to face Sheffield Eagles next Sunday.

In their first drive of that decisive period, Swinton got to the Crusaders line and gave Hough his heroic moment and leave the travelling fans ecstatic.