Super League: Castleford Tigers beat St Helens 28-14 to go joint top
- Published
Derrell Olpherts (centre) crossed twice in the first half to put Castleford in charge
Betfred Super League |
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Castleford (14) 28 |
Tries: Olpherts 2, Mata'utia, Blair, Trueman Goals: Richardson 4 |
St Helens (4) 14 |
Tries: Makinson, Welsby, Thompson Goal: Makinson |
Castleford put on a fine display to beat an out-of-sorts St Helens and move joint top of Super League.
Derrell Olpherts' first-half double and Peter Mata'utia's early score put them in charge before a fine Tommy Makinson try gave St Helens some hope at 14-4.
But Cheyse Blair crossed for a fourth Castleford score after the interval to dampen any hopes of a Saints comeback.
Jack Welsby and Luke Thompson scored late consolation tries either side of Cas' fifth score, from Jake Trueman.
Yellow cards for Matty Lees and Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook in either half hampered Saints' hopes of staying in the contest and their second defeat in a row sees them stay sixth.
The match was the only fully-professional top-level league fixture in UK sport to go ahead on Sunday as the coronavirus pandemic forced the postponement of swathes of fixtures.
It remains uncertain if the league will continue for the foreseeable future with RFL chief executive Ralph Rimmer confirming before kick-off that Super League clubs will meet on Monday to discuss how the game goes forward.
With more eyeballs than usual perhaps on the fixture, Castleford took the perfect opportunity to show why they have made a strong start to the campaign by getting the better of the defending champions.
The foundation of their third win in the past four games was set after Mata'utia and Olpherts went over with three tries in the space of 21 minutes. Olpherts' second saw him dot down inches before he was forced out of touch.
An error-strewn Saints were handed a lifeline when Makinson just about managed to touch down in the closing seconds of the first half.
But a second yellow card of the afternoon came when McCarthy-Scarsbrook caught former Saint Danny Richardson with a high tackle and seemingly put paid to their chances.
Blair went over with St Helens again down to 12 and a late defensive mix-up allowed Trueman in for the last of Cas' five tries.
Castleford head coach Daryl Powell told BBC Radio Leeds:
"I thought the performance was outstanding, particularly in the first half. Everything we'd talked about from a plan perspective, the boys delivered.
"There were a couple of tough periods for us but I felt we handled it really well. Danny Richardson was keen for a big game today and I felt he delivered that.
"Everyone understands at the moment that it's a confused scenario right across the country.
"Some meetings taking place in the next few days will give some clearer understanding and then we can plan accordingly within our own organisation."
St Helens head coach Kristian Woolf told BBC Radio Merseyside:
"For the second week in a row, we've been really disappointing. It's frustrating
"We're obviously fairly ill-disciplined with and without the ball at the minute and we're not giving ourselves much of a chance in those early exchanges.
"There's some things we've got to fix up and we've got to do that pretty quickly.
"We started the second half with a lot or energy than we did the first, but it wasn't consistent and we have to be able to play with that energy for 80 minutes."
Castleford: Rankin, Olpherts, Mata'utia, Shenton, Clare, Trueman, Richardson, Massey, Blair, McMeeken, Watts, McShane, Griffin.
Interchanges: Millington, Milner, Sene-Lefao, Smith.
St Helens: Coote, Makinson, Naiqama, Welsby, Grace, Lomax, Fages, Walmsley, Roby, Thompson, Taia, Peyroux, Knowles.
Interchanges: McCarthy-Scarsbrook, Lees, Amor, Smith.
Sin-bin: Lees (30 mins), McCarthy-Scarsbrook (44 mins).
Referee: Liam Moore (RFL)