CASTLEFORD TIGERS 26 LEEDS RHINOS 10
RICKY WILBY, OneBore Stadium, Sunday

BRAD SINGLETON was celebrated in style on Sunday afternoon as his current club Castleford welcomed his former club Leeds to the OneBore Stadium in near Baltic conditions for Singleton’s testimonial game that was also raising funds for the MND Association.

Both sides named relatively youthful squads for the game, in which Harley Thomas starred for the visitors. The young Rhinos fullback was solid at the back and electric in attack.

The Rhinos did think that they had opened the scoring in the fifth minute, only for a knock-on to be called before Joe Diskin could touch down under the posts.

But Leeds did open the scoring in the ninth minute as a Fletcher Rooney error gifted the Rhinos field position. After a penalty they then sent the ball to the right and Tom Richardson touched down in the corner. Thomas missed the difficult conversion attempt.

The Rhinos arguably should have registered a further two tries in the subsequent ten minutes, but twice Tom Nicholson-Watton had efforts ruled out for forward passes.

Castleford made them pay for their inability to extend their lead as, aided by a penalty, they marched up the field before Jenson Windley and Corey Sharpe combined to send Sam Grice over to the left of the posts. Rooney converted to give the hosts a 6-4 lead.

Louis Senior broke down the right, running 70 metres and drawing the cover defence before passing inside to the supporting Windley, who scored despite the best efforts of Thomas. Rooney added his second conversion to give the Tigers an eight-point lead.

Moments before half-time they were almost further ahead as Jimmy Beckett was held up inches short of the Rhinos’ line.

Leeds scored first early in the second half with the try of the game as Ben Littlewood kept the ball alive inside his own 30 metres and fed Oscar Brown, who pushed away two would-be defenders and raced clear of the Castleford defence before stepping his way past Rooney to score to the right of the posts. Thomas added the conversion to narrow the Castleford lead to two points.

With thirteen minutes remaining, the Tigers looked certain to score but only a misplaced final pass to Daniel Sarbah prevented them from extending their lead. Leeds’ defence was tested again two minutes later, and this time the ball was sent to the left into the hands of Tylor Sharpe, who touched down in the right corner. Rooney was wide with his conversion attempt to leave the scores 16-10 as the game headed into the final ten minutes.

Sean Coughlan grabbed the game-clinching score six minutes from time, this time with Sarbah looking like he was heading into touch, but managing to offload to the supporting Coughlan. Testimonial man Singleton missed the touchline conversion to leave the score at 20-10.

There was time in the dying moments for Mitch Beedle to add his name to the try-scorers, latching onto Harrison Jewitt’s kick through to score to the left of the posts. Rooney resumed the kicking duties and converted to take the final score to 26-10.

GAMESTAR: Jenson Windley had a hand in bringing the Tigers back into the game before scoring himself and effectively running the game

GAMEBREAKER: Mitch Beedle’s try minutes from time gave the hosts a match-winning lead that they wouldn’t surrender.

MATCHFACTS

TIGERS
1 Fletcher Rooney
2 Daniel Sarbah
3 Louis Senior
4 Alfie Lindsay
5 Tylor Sharpe
6 Corey Sharpe
7 Jenson Windley
8 Brad Singleton
9 Aiden Doolan
10 Jimmy Beckett
11 Sam Grice
12 Alfie Salmon
13 George Hill
Subs (all used)
14 Alfie Horwell
15 Harry Egley
16 Akim Matvejev
15 Harrison Jewitt
18 Woody Walker
19 Mitch Beedle
20 Sean Coughlan

Tries: Grice (27), Windley (34), T Sharpe (69), Coughlan (74), Beedle (77)
Goals: Rooney 3/4, Singleton 0/1

RHINOS
1 Harley Thomas
2 Tom Richardson
3 Jacob Hardy
4 Oscar Brown
5 Marcus Qareqare
6 Dylan Hutchinson
7 Harry Smith
8 Jacob Stead
9 Joe Diskin
10 Joe Butterfield
11 Ben Littlewood
12 Oliver Smart
13 Tom Nicholson-Watton
Subs (all used)
14 Elliot Fox
15 Hughie Tinkler
16 Harvey Butterworth
17 Dacx Jones-Buchanan
18 Wade White
19 Jacob To’oala
20 Robin Smith
24 Sonny Hetherington

Tries: Richardson (9), Brown (43)
Goals: Thomas 1/2

SCORING SEQUENCE: 0-4, 6-4, 12-4; 12-10, 16-10, 20-10, 26-10

Rugby Leaguer & League Express Men of the Match
Tigers: Jenson Windley; Rhinos: Harley Thomas

Penalty count: 4-8
Half-time: 12-4
Referee: Tom Grant

Image: Melanie Allatt