Super League: Leeds Rhinos 18-32 Castleford Tigers

England's future looks bright with the form of Niall Evalds and Leeds' Ash Handley

Castleford Tigers gave their Super League play-off hopes a welcome boost with victory over rivals Leeds Rhinos.

The Tigers set a first-half platform with Greg Eden and Peter Mata'utia tries, while Rob Lui's score for Leeds came with Mata'utia in the sin-bin.

Rhinos skipper for the night Ash Handley scored after the break to reduce the arrears to just two points.

But Jordan Turner, Eden and Jimmy Keinhorst crossed to put Leeds to bed despite Brad Dwyer's try in between.

The result is a major lift for Castleford boss Daryl Powell who has seen Covid-19 and injuries rob him of key personnel in recent weeks, but he was able to put out a side capable of causing Leeds problems.

Mata'utia shrugged off his bout of coronavirus to turn in an influential display despite his sin-binning for a tackle in the air, while loanee Keinhorst made an instant impact against his old club with a late try.

Covid has taken its toll on Leeds too, as they lost captain Matt Prior for the match, while Mikolaj Oledzki was also out and a head knock robbed them of prop King Vuniyayawa during the game.

They pressured Castleford early on with intensity and had further spells in the second-half, but failed to put points on the board at those times.

In a week in which the 2021 World Cup was confirmed to be postponed, there was plenty for England coach Shaun Wane to enjoy from this encounter, particularly the performances of Cas' Niall Evalds at full-back and the continued improvement after injury of Harry Newman on the Rhinos side.

Leeds head coach Richard Agar told BBC Radio Leeds:

"I thought it was a poor performance from us on both sides of the ball. We had enough chances in the first 15 minutes to put some fair daylight in and our execution was off, selection poor and finishing wasn't where it should be.

"We had so many chances in the first 10 to 15 minutes, I'll credit Castleford for the scramble, and they continued that in the second half, but at the same time I'll look to where we had so many chances and lost opportunities.

"That's allied to us being too easy to score against, Castleford didn't have to work hard for the tries, the first two were majorly disappointing for us. From my point of view we were nowhere near up to it. At times we looked like we were making it up."

Castleford head coach Daryl Powell told BBC Radio Leeds:

"It was a tough game, a bit helter-skelter and we didn't have much control. They had 70% territory, we spent a lot of time defending our own line - of which some was our own doing - and we put ourselves under a bit of pressure.

"But we were so desperate to win the game, and bear in mind, I don't know if you've had Covid but it's tough to exercise after and these boys so many of them coming back from that - if you put it in the mix that's an incredible win.

"I was really pleased with what we did tonight, obviously we want to improve, we've got St Helens next up and you can't give them 70% territory. But we were great in lots of areas tonight."

Leeds: Myler; T. Briscoe, Hurrell, Newman, Handley; L. Sutcliffe, Lui; Vuniyayawa, Leeming, Thompson, Donaldson,Martin, Tetevano.

Interchanges: Holroyd, Dwyer, Gannon, Smith.

Castleford: Evalds; Olpherts, Mata'utia, Turner, Eden; O'Brien, Richardson; Smith, McShane, Millington, Holmes, Sene-Lefao, Milner.

Interchanges: Massey, Foster, Matagi, Keinhorst.

Referee: Ben Thaler (RFL)

• Super League Show - watch and catch-up here