Castleford Tigers centre Jake Webster scored a try with five seconds remaining to give a 14-10 victory to Castleford Tigers against the visiting Salford Red Devils at the Mend-a-Hose Jungle tonight.
The Red Devils will be cursing themselves tonight that they were unable to hold on for what would have been a thrilling victory.
The Tigers held a 6-0 lead at half-time, thanks to a try by wingman and crowd favourite Justin Carney, who collected a high kick from Liam Finn that Salford winger Josh Johnson couldn’t handle. But apart from that the Tigers had been under a lot of pressure from the Red Devils, led by Rangi Chase, but had managed to keep the visitors out, despite them going close several times.
Their supporters may have expected Castleford to extend their lead in the second half, and they did, but only by two points, when Marc Sneyd kicked a penalty with 30 minutes remaining to stretch the lead to eight points.
But the Red Devils finally got onto the scoreboard through a Junior Sa’u try soon after they had received a penalty, and although Chase couldn’t add the conversion, the Red Devils were clearly boosted by the score.
And they took the lead when Gareth Hock scored under the posts, following a great run by Chase, with the former Castleford star adding the goal to give his side an 8-10 lead with fewer than 15 minutes remaining.
And they could have won the game, if Francis Meli had been able to pass to a colleague when he made a break downfield.
But it wasn’t to be, and it was Webster who scored in the corner soon after the Red Devils had dropped the ball out from under their own posts. The try came from a break by Daryl Clark, with Sneyd adding the goal to complete a thrilling and dramatic victory and the Tigers maintaining their challenge in the top four of Super League.
A full report and photographs will feature in Monday’s edition of Rugby League Express.
