Super League: Hull FC 36-18 Castleford Tigers - seven-try Hull eye play-offs

Chris Satae sparked a second-half Hull onslaught with some strong running

Chris Satae powered Hull to within sight of the play-off positions with victory over struggling Castleford.

The Tongan prop scored one try and created another with strong running to perk up Hull after a dour first half.

Victory puts the Black and Whites within two points of sixth-placed rivals Hull KR as they made it seven wins out of 10 in Super League.

Defeat leaves Cas, with just two wins in their last 11, looking over their shoulder at bottom club Wakefield.

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The two sides were tied 8-8 at half time but Satae's powerful burst ignited a spell of four tries in 17 minutes that demolished Tigers' resistance.

Hull were already buoyed by victory in the Humberside derby last week and with 10th-placed Huddersfield and Wakefield up next, they now have hopes of breaking into the top six.

Castleford successfully slowed the game in the first half and after Adam Swift's try had given the home side the lead, the Tigers edged ahead as Elliot Wallis wrong-footed Carlos Tuimavave and Gareth Widdop added the extras.

Tuimavave made amends by diving over from Jake Trueman's pass but with Jake Clifford again missing the conversion, Widdop's penalty levelled the scores at the break.

Hull visibly upped the intensity from the re-start, and Satae, who has signed for Catalans Dragons for next season, strong-armed his way over the line to move the Black and Whites ahead again.

From the re-start, the fired-up Satae smashed through four tackles to punch a huge hole which Swift exploited, throwing two dummies and racing over.

With Liam Sutcliffe successfully taking over kicking duties after Clifford's two failures, Hull appeared in full control.

But with both sides suffering injury problems - Hull losing Tuimavave with a leg injury and Cas' Riley Dean failing a head injury assessment - the outcome was still up in the air.

That was underlined as Liam Watts broke for Tigers and fed Joe Westerman, who in turn sent Jack Broadbent over to narrow the gap.

But Davy Litten raced through a hole and Cam Scott went over for two tries to pull Hull clear on the scoreboard before Bureta Faraimo squeezed over in the corner for Cas against his old club.

Hull FC coach Tony Smith told BBC Radio Humberside:

"We were both sloppy before half-time, and kept each other in the game, but we found some energy in the second half.

"I still thought we had some sloppy moments and in some areas we weren't quite on it, and it cost us. But we also found some really good moments and jumped on board with each other when that happened.

"They're honest boys and knew at half-time we weren't quite there, and we had to find some ways of lifting again."

On injuries: "Carlos (Tuimavave) has tightened up his hamstring and because he's had that kind of scare before we didn't want to take any chances.

"Danny (Houghton) has had a bit of abdominal pain, he thinks he's strained a muscle in there and was uncomfortable.

"But Brad (Dwyer) had probably one of his best games since he's been with us and gave us a whole lot of energy. He and Chris (Satae) lifted us in a big way - and Cameron Scott. They were probably the three that stood out most for us - and put (Adam) Swift in there as well."

Castleford coach Andy Last said:

"It's really frustrating. We felt in a good space going into half-time. There were a couple of things we just needed to touch on at half-time but we didn't go out and execute what we spoke about, like tidying up our ball control.

"The Satae barge-over try is very dubious, whether he got it down. But we have to show more resilience.

"At the kick-off we're still worrying about not getting the call off the referee, they go back-to-back and suddenly the scoreboard pressure is on you and we're chasing the game.

"We just aren't quite resilient and tough enough mentally to deal with that pressure and those mistakes.

"When you're in that confident headspace and in that zone, you don't let things rattle you. You just get on with the next job and stick to the process.

"But there's a little bit of negativity and a feeling that everything is against us. We need to be better than that."

Hull FC: Litten, Barron, Tuimavave, L. Sutcliffe, Swift, Trueman, Clifford, Sao, Houghton, Fash, Savelio, Scott, Cator

Interchanges: Satae, Lane, Taylor, Dwyer (Lovodua)

Castleford: Widdop, Faraimo, Fonua, Broadbent, Wallis, Dean, Miller, Watts, Johnstone, Vete, Mellor, Edwards, Westerman

Interchanges: G. Griffin, A. Sutcliffe, Mustapha, Hall (Robb)

Referee: Marcus Griffiths.

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