Pre-season Round-up: Castleford Tigers turn on the style as Leeds Rhinos beaten

Here is a round up of every result from today’s pre-season friendlies as Super League sides clashed:

Wakefield Trinity 0-56 Hull FC

Two coaches preparing to take charge of their first Super League games in their new positions collided as Wakefield Trinity, with an experimental side named by Mark Applegarth with Corey Hall at fullback and Samisoni Langi in the halves, hosted the near full strength Hull FC.

After being ‘unhappy’ with their last pre-season performance against Sheffield Eagles, this was a different story for Hull FC as they thumped Wakefield in the first half averaging almost a point per minute.

Four minutes into the game big Chris Satae got the ball rolling on the back of good work from his front row partner Scott Taylor whose drive and offload led the way for Satae to power over.

Four minutes later and it was 10-0 as new number seven Jake Clifford’s crossfield kick was taken by Adam Swift to score.

10 minutes later and it was a brace for Swift. Again good work from Clifford to find debutant from Leeds Rhinos Liam Sutcliffe who fed Swift for a great finish in the corner. 16-0 after 20 minutes.

Back from injury and Joe Cator was next on the scoresheet. Barely a minute since he came on, he took a lovely Josh Griffin offload – who was playing in the backrow – to score.

It was two tries in two minutes as a high kick forced an error which was taken by Brad Fash who found Jack Brown to score.

Before the break Sutcliffe would crown his debut with a try with the centre showing good feet to carve through and make it six first half tries.

The tries didn’t dry up in the second half either. After the left edge had enjoyed all the joy of the first half a ball from Joe Lovodua saw right winger Darnell McIntosh score.

Lovodua turned from provider to scorer when he darted after his own kick to score and make it 44-0.

It was then a hat-trick for Adam Swift as Liam Sutcliffe fed the ball to the former St Helens winger for Hull’s ninth try with the conversion registering the half century.

Try number 10 follow as young fullback Davy Litten wrapped up the dominant win for Hull as the won 56-0.

Hull KR 26-4 Leeds Rhinos

If any club should know about the power of Ryan Hall its Leeds Rhinos yet that didn’t stop them from stopping him. After a Leeds error, Hull KR rolled down field with some top offloads and a sweet move down the left saw Hall one on one with young Luis Roberts. To the young man’s credit, he wasn’t bundled off Hall and stuck to him like glue but Hall had the strength to get the ball down.

Ryan Hall got his second of the day showing great power to touch down from the play the ball as Hull KR looked electric with the ball and Leeds continued to squander chances.

Leeds finished the half with plenty of possession and, despite the fact their attack had clearly blown away some of the cobwebs from earlier in the game, they threw everything at Hull KR but they absorbed the pressure with some brilliant cover defence.

After absorbing all that pressure Hull KR got to the other end with some quick rucks and powerful running. Then a break from Jordan Abdull coupled with support from Tom Opacic saw him cross for his first try for the club.

Something Leeds’ style of play demands, the Rhinos showed some better cover defence in the second half and some brilliant individual tackles on their own line. That said they were needed too frequently. Overall a poor day for the Rhinos.

On a difficult afternoon, Leeds’ best attacking set of the game yielded points. A Blake Austin break started it, then the Rhinos moved the ball wide to find Rhyse Martin who looked destined to score. He was denied but eventually Leeds got over through Leon Ruan who squeezed over at the corner.

Shortly after that try, Hull KR got one of their own as a cut out pass found Ethan Ryan who produced a superb finish in the corner.

Jez Litten wrapped up the win as he burrowed over from close range.

Wigan Warriors 32-4 Salford Red Devils

In Sam Powell’s testimonial, fans were set to be treated to some top rugby league as the two most entertaining sides of 2022 clashes as Wigan Warriors hosted Salford Red Devils.

The first try was something straight out of 2022 as Jai Field broke and found Bevan French to race away and score the opening try after just six minutes.

Unfortunately, it was a player we won’t see on these shores this time next year who scored the next try as Kai Pearce-Paul, headed to the NRL with Newcastle Knights alongside Huddersfield Giants star Will Pryce, scored.

The try came just 10 minutes after the first as Cade Cust threaded the ball neatly to Pearce-Paul who cut through to score.

Salford then stemmed the tide before a lovely ball out to Deon Cross on the right edge allowed him to score and make it 12-4 but crucially the last try of the half went to the home side.

This again came from the prolific French who intercept and raced away to make it 18-4 at halftime as Harry Smith proved flawless with the boot.

After French has been typically potent in the first half, it was Field who got in on the act in the second half as the livewire chased a chip kick to score the first points of the second half and make it 24-4 as Wigan’s dangerous duo threatens to rip Super League wide open again in 2023.

One player with attacking potential who will want to show that more commonly in 2023 is Abbas Miski who was on hand to take a loose ball and acrobatically score in the corner.

Miski got a late second to wrap up a 32-4 win for the Warriors.

Castleford Tigers 48-10 Huddersfield Giants

Castleford impressed against the Huddersfield Giants in Nathan Massey’s testimonial.

Yes it wasn’t the Giants at full strength but it was still a decent Giants side but Lee Radford’s near full strength Tigers ploughed through them.

First half tries from Alex Mellor, Paul McShane and Bureta Faraimo left them 16-4 ahead at the break.

Huddersfield did make it 16-10 early in the second half as Innes Senior scored but as Faraimo completed his hat trick Cas were out of sight by the hour mark.

McShane got a second, Mahe Fonua crossed for a brace too whilst Albert Vete scored his first Tigers try.

The highlight of the day was Nathan Massey notching a conversion on his special day.