Castleford Tigers Head Coach Daryl Powell
Castleford Tigers Head Coach Daryl Powell

Leeds Rhinos 8-30 Castleford Tigers: Visitors take bragging rights against West Yorkshire rivals in Betfred Super League


Castleford cruised to a 30-8 victory in the battle of the West Yorkshire crisis clubs to put a dampener on the opening of the new-look Headingley Stadium.

The unveiling of the new North Stand, which completed the £43million redevelopment of the famous old ground, helped draw a crowd of 13,286 but it was the visiting fans who had most to cheer.

Winger Greg Eden scored his 100th Super League try on his recall and second rower Jesse Sene-Lefao touched down twice to lift the spirits of Castleford, who had lost their previous four matches in their worst run under coach Daryl Powell.

The win, which gave the Tigers sweet revenge for their golden-point defeat at Headingley in March, lifts the Tigers back into the top five but Leeds remain in trouble at the other end of the table, just two points above bottom club London Broncos, their next opponents at the Magic Weekend.

Leeds were still smarting from the humiliation of a Challenge Cup exit at the hands of part-time neighbours Bradford and this crushing defeat did little to lift the gloom.

The Rhinos, who gave a Super League debut to teenage stand-off Callum McLelland against his home-town club, suffered an early blow with the loss of Tui Lolohea with an ankle injury, although Liam Sutcliffe, who had been switched from stand-off to the second row, proved a useful deputy at full-back.

It was from his break that Leeds opened the scoring, Sutcliffe putting over a penalty on 14 minutes after Castleford half-back Jake Trueman was pulled up for a ball steal.

When the Tigers received a penalty from a similar position, they opted to run the ball and their confidence was justified when Sene-Lefao crashed over from Paul McShane's pass close to the line, although slow-motion replays cast some doubt over the grounding.

Peter Mata'utia added the conversion to make it 6-2 and Leeds were reduced to 12 men for 10 minutes when skipper Kallum Watkins was sin-binned for a dangerous tackle on Eden.

Castleford immediately took advantage of the extra man, with Eden taking Jake Trueman's cut-out pass to cross for his century try, and Mata'utia made it 12-2 with the touchline conversion.

It was a half-time score that accurately reflected the visitors' superiority, although Leeds missed a glorious chance to pull a try back just before the break when Watkins got on the end of a break by McLelland and looked to be clear only to fall to Eden's last-ditch tackle.

The introduction from the bench of front row trio Ava Seumanufagai, who was on home debut, Mikolaj Oledzki and Matt Parcell gave the home side fresh impetus but Castleford struck first after the break to stretch their lead.

Trueman's short pass close to the Leeds line got Sene-Lefao romping over for his second try and Mata'utia's third goal made it 18-2.

Parcell gave Leeds hope when he took Richie Myler's pass to cross for their only try on 51 minutes but Castleford simply went up a gear.

Winger James Clare was gifted a try when centre Harry Newman fumbled Jordan Rankin's towering kick and Eden skipped past Tom Briscoe to get Trueman over for his side's fifth try, to which Mata'utia added his fifth goal.

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