St Helens eased through the challenge of Castleford Tigers to book their place in the quarter-finals of the Challenge Cup, winning 32-8 at Wheldon Road.
Here’s our talking points.
Saints progress
After a fast start, this one turned out to be a bit of a slog for St Helens, but they did enough to progress and ultimately, that’s what will matter for Paul Rowley.
The Saints got the scoreboard ticking over after just five minutes on the clock as Daryl Clark scooted out of dummy half to touch down. And, they were celebrating again a few minutes later as Tristan Sailor broke through the line to put Lewis Murphy over in the corner.
Mark Percival made the most of some sloppy play from both sides to pick the ball up and touch down on the right to put the Saints 16-0 up and from there, it looked as though the Merseyside outfit would cruise to victory.
That’s when Castleford decided to show up. Following Clark’s departure for a HIA, Castleford took hold of momentum and dominated field position for the remainder of the first half and the first 20 minutes of the second half.
During that period, though, they managed to get over once, with Jason Qareqare diving over in the corner. They huffed and puffed but they couldn’t add to those four points before St Helens made them pay with efforts from Murphy and Agnatius Paasi to take the game away from Cas.
Ashton Golding grabbed a late effort for the Tigers but Kyle Feldt rounded off the scoring.
Hooker concern
St Helens find themselves in the middle of a hooker crisis after Daryl Clark and Jake Burns failed HIAs in the first half at Wheldon Road. Clark looked well as he went off for his head assessment but he never returned to the action and 15 minutes later he was joined in the changing rooms by Jake Burns, who had replaced him on the field.
Burns was laid out on the field for quite some time after taking his blow to the head before eventually getting up and being helped down the tunnel.
With no other hooker options available, Jake Wingfield was the man to step into the dummy half and you would have to think he would be the man to play nine next week in Toulouse, too.
Cas their own worst enemies
Castleford would have given themselves a chance in this game if they didn’t start so horribly. By making a couple of mistakes early on, they gifted St Helens a 10-0 lead and from there they had it all to do.
They were the better side for large periods of the game, but Saints had a lead and they dug in to hold onto what they had before getting over for three tries late on to produce a big scoreline.
Jackson Hastings issue
On a tough night, Hastings played a decent role in the scrum-half positions and marshalled his side well. However, he left the field late with what looked to be a shoulder injury and could be seen on the bench with ice park on strapped to his neck.
Paul Rowley will be asked about that after the game.
Disciplinary concern
St Helens will be one club sweating Monday’s disciplinary verdict it seems after seeing Kyle Feldt sin-binned in the second half for a late shot on Krystian Mapapalangi.
It was late and Feldt could have no complaints as he was sent for 10 minutes on the touchline. Mapapalangi was taken off for a HIA afterwards and he notably didn’t come back on, which certainly won’t help Feldt’s case when the Match Review Panel meet.
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