St Helens thrash dismal Castleford Tigers in ruthless Super League display

CASTLEFORD TIGERS 6 ST HELENS 46
CALLUM WALKER, The Mend-a-Hose Jungle, Saturday

JACK WELSBY, Alex Walmsley and Agnatius Paasi – three men that will haunt Castleford fans for the rest of the season.

The trio were in remarkable form, with Welsby taking advantage of Walmsley and Paasi laying the groundwork with some metre-eating runs to run rings around the Tigers’ defence.

Lee Kershaw came in for his Castleford debut in place of Josh Simm whilst Alex Mellor returned from injury to take Josh Hodson’s spot in the back-row, with the latter dropping to the bench.

The only change for Saints saw Paasi replace James Bell and it was the visitors that started brighter, forcing a drop-out in just their second set before Joe Batchelor barged through soft defence to cross for the first points. Mark Percival converted for a 6-0 lead after seven minutes.

A penalty in the next set laid the platform for another from Paul Wellens’ men, this time Welsby fired a lovely cut-out pass to Kyle Feldt to cross in the corner. Percival missed the conversion but Saints led 10-0.

It was 14-0 in the flash of an eye as Jon Bennison broke down the left and his delicate kick inside was caught expertly by Jonny Lomax for a quite scintillating score. The only thing keeping Castleford in the game up until now was Percival’s wayward kicking as he missed his second.

At this point, the Tigers had not even been in Saints’ half with Walmsley and Matty Lees destroying the Castleford pack in the opening exchanges and Welsby and co. being ruthless out wide.

And it took a stroke of luck on the half-hour for the hosts to break the visitors’ line, Daejarn Asi’s kick being charged down into the hands of Sylvster Namo, who broke 40 metres before he himself charged over on the next play. Tex Hoy converted to reduce the deficit to eight at 14-6.

The Tigers should have made it two in two minutes when Asi scythed through from his own half, but Innes Senior made a decision to pass instead of taking the tackle. As it was, Saints held on for half-time.

But all of Danny McGuire’s side’s hard work was undone immediately after the resumption, with a drop-out and two harsh penalties yielding Saints’ next points as Paasi barged through soft defence. Percival converted to make it 20-6.

It was two in two minutes, with a lucky kick bounce bringing another six again before Harry Robertson dummied his way to the line.

Percival couldn’t miss and he was on target again on the hour when Walmsley reached through a series of defenders to dot down.

32-6 became 36-6 on 65 minutes with Robertson taking yet another fine Welsby pass on a slick last-tackle play, before the Saints star man bundled Fletcher Rooney into touch following a brilliant break.

To cap off a wonderful display, Welsby somehow waltzed around shoddy Castleford tackling in the final stages with Jon Bennison dotting down on the hooter. Percival converted the former but missed the latter as Saints ran out 46-6 winners.

GAMESTAR: Everything Jack Welsby touched turned to gold.

GAMEBREAKER: Two quick-fire Saints tries out of half-time made it game, set and match.

HIGHLIGHT REEL: St Helens’ third try was a thing of beauty with quick hands sending Jon Bennison free before he kicked inside for Jonny Lomax.

ALBERT GOLDTHORPE POINTS
3 pts Jack Welsby (St Helens)
2 pts Alex Walmsley (St Helens)
1 pt Agnatius Paasi (St Helens)

MATCHFACTS
TIGERS
23 Fletcher Rooney
37 Lee Kershaw (D)
3 Zac Cini
4 Sam Wood (C)
5 Innes Senior
6 Daejarn Asi
1 Tex Hoy
10 George Lawler
14 Judah Rimbu
13 Joe Westerman
11 Jeremiah Simbiken
12 Alex Mellor
9 Liam Horne
Subs
15 George Griffin
18 Josh Hodson (not used)
20 Muizz Mustapha
21 Sylvester Namo
18th man (not used)
18 Luke Hooley
Also in 21-man squad
8 Liam Watts
24 Josh Simm
35 Dan Okoro

Tries: Namo (28)
Goals: Hoy 1/1

SAINTS
1 Jack Welsby
2 Kyle Feldt
26 Harry Robertson
4 Mark Percival
5 Jon Bennison
6 Tristan Sailor
7 Jonny Lomax (C)
8 Alex Walmsley
9 Daryl Clark
10 Matty Lees
11 Curtis Sironen
12 Joe Batchelor
13 Morgan Knowles
Subs (all used)
16 Matt Whitley
17 Agnatius Paasi
18 Jake Wingfield
19 George Delaney
18th man (not used)
21 Noah Stephens
Also in 21-man squad
15 James Bell
23 Jake Burns
27 George Whitby