Castleford Tigers 14-8 Leeds Rhinos: Highlights, player ratings and talking points

Castleford Tigers ended their dismal start to the season in the perfect fashion by defeating big city rivals Leeds Rhinos.

Highlights:

Leeds squander early chance
Leeds really should have broken the deadlock early. It was a play that has often yielded points in the past as Jarrod O’Connor popped the ball left to Rhyse Martin. He hit Gareth Widdop hard and managed to squirm an offload away only for O’Connor to drop it not ready to catch the ball.

Set play catches Rhinos out
The pressure was mounting on the Rhinos and then a lovely set play down the right saw Bureta Faraimo dive in at the corner.

Huge hit on Newman
Harry Newman is back but he wasn’t given a very nice greeting by Bureta Faraimo who absolutely smashed him as he shut down Leeds’ first attack after the opening try.

Castleford’s turn to squander huge chance
The Tigers looked certain to double their lead when they went down the right again with Jack Broadbent tipping on a pass to winger Faraimo but this time he dropped it with the line at his mercy.

Leeds strike back
Straight after that, Leeds scored a quintessential try as Aidan Sezer ducked back inside offloaded to Cameron Smith who bust through finding Austin in support who then gave it inside to Richie Myler to score.

Scrum move sees Cas take lead
A lovely scrum move with Jacob Miller popping out of the back of the scrum and feeding it out wide with Greg Eden putting in Faraimo for a second.

Another bombed try
Castleford bombed another try with another neat play out the back only for Alex Mellor to drop the ball with a two on one in front of him.

Olpherts squanders heroic moment
Against his former club Derrell Olpherts had a chance for a heroic moment but with the line at his mercy he dropped the ball and with it Leeds dropped the two points.

Talking Points:

Strange Newman decision
When Leeds needed a try late on you couldn’t help but think that if Rohan Smith had named Harry Newman on the bench and brought him on against a tired defence he could have made a difference. Instead, it meant that young Luis Roberts was left in a pressure cooker situation.

Cas character
If there were any doubts about the character of this Castleford team they should be wiped away by tonight’s showing. Resurgence underlined it.

Leeds their own worst enemy
This was a game that on form Leeds should have won comfortably but in the second half they just made it easy on the Tigers were too many errors and silly penalties.

Player Ratings:

Castleford Tigers
2 Greg Eden – 8
5 Bureta Faraimo – 8
17 Jack Broadbent – 7
4 Mahe Fonua – 6
31 Jason Qareqare – 8
6 Gareth Widdop – 8
7 Jacob Miller – 8
20 Muizz Mustapha – 7
9 Paul McShane – 8
14 Nathan Massey – 7
16 Adam Milner – 8
12 Alex Mellor – 8
13 Joe Westerman – 8
Substitutes
11 Kenny Edwards – 7
22 Daniel Smith – 7
23 Suaia Matagi – 7
32 Liam Watts – 8

Leeds Rhinos
1 Richie Myler – 6
16 Derrell Olpherts – 5
4 Nene MacDonald – 6
3 Harry Newman – 6
2 David Fusitu’a – 6
6 Blake Austin – 6
7 Aidan Sezer – 6
10 Zane Tetevano – 5
14 Jarrod O’Connor – 6
18 Tom Holroyd – 6
12 Rhyse Martin – 5
19 James McDonnell – 6
13 Cameron Smith – 8
Substitutues
11 James Bentley – 6
15 Sam Lisone – 6
17 Justin Sangare – 5
24 Luis Roberts – 5