Leeds shrugged off the absence of 14 players to conjure a sensational fightback as three second-half tries gave them victory against the engage Super League's bottom club Castleford at Headingley Carnegie.

No fewer than 14 of Brian McClennan's squad were missing - seven were rested after playing in last night's Gillette international between England and France - and another seven were injured or suspended.

Castleford exploited the absence of key men such Kevin Sinfield, Jamie Peacock, Gareth Ellis, Keith Senior Danny McGuire, Rob Burrow - all of whom were instrumental in England's 56-8 victory in Toulouse - to open the scoring after 20 minutes through Richard Owen.

Castleford teenager Joe Westerman, 18, who had travelled to Toulouse as non-playing member of the England squad, then touched down six minutes into the second half to put Castleford 10-0 ahead.

But the spirited Rhinos dug deep thereafter to claim tries from Lee Smith, Brent Webb and Matt Diskin to avoid a third successive defeat and avenge their 38-20 defeat at the hands of the Tigers at the Jungle in March.

The absence of so many established players forced McClennan to dig deep into the club's vaunted academy for bodies.

Remarkably, and to their eternal credit, 13 of Leeds' 17 named players had progressed through the youth system at Headingley.

Two 19-year-olds - Ben Jones-Bishop and Danny Allan - lined up at full-back and stand-off respectively and certainly showed no signs of stagefright.

Both were prominent during the early exchanges but after Leeds failed to make their dominance pay Castleford forged ahead through Owen who touched down in the left corner to finish off a fine move which saw the ball pass through five pairs of hands.

The score capped a spell of pressure from the visiting side but after Craig Huby failed to convert the try, the Rhinos produced an encouraging response and Allan was desperately unlucky not to cap his first senior start with a try.

The rangy half-back collected possession just inside the Castleford half and advanced forward at pace but saw his progress halted by a fine saving tackle from Owen just short of the line.

Huby extended the visitors' lead soon after with a routine penalty but Castleford failed to make their territorial dominance pay as the interval approached as scrum-half Brent Sherwin skewed a drop-goal attempt wide shortly before the break.

However, Westerman's half-time introduction injected added firepower into Castleford and he embarked on a powerful run from deep which created the field position which culminated in the teenager grounding a fine crossfield kick from Luke Dorn.

Westerman could not convert and although a Huby penalty kept Castleford's hopes of victory alive, Leeds roared back in stunning fashion.

First Smith scampered clear down the left flank after collecting Simon Worrall's pass and then Webb found the space to crash over. Smith failed to convert his own try but added the extras to Webb's and did likewise when Diskin emerged to crash under the posts before adding a penalty for this third goal of the evening.