Castleford Tigers held off a fierce comeback from local rivals Wakefield Trinity to register a 28-26 victory, keeping them in third position in the table.
The Tigers came out of the blocks fast: An error from Mason Caton-Brown led to James Clare crossing in the right corner. Then Liam Watts set up Jesse Sene-Lefao with a short pass. Sene-Lefao would, however, withdraw from the game after scoring with a dislocated shoulder.
But that didn’t stop Castleford from continuing to rack up points. Clare got his second try after a superb offload from Mike McMeeken. Then Cory Aston, on his Super League debut took Daniel Smith’s offload before diving under the posts.
Caton-Brown’s try as half-time approached got Wakefield on the board. Greg Minikin’s try just after half-time looked to have done enough for the Tigers but Caton-Brown scored his second to bring Trinity back to within 18.
Peter Mata’utia’s penalty, who was lucky on his third attempt after missing two previous penalty attempts, made the lead a four-score one.
And the Tigers fans will be glad he did because Trinity scored three times in the last 20 minutes through Joe Arundel, Ren Reynolds, on debut for Wakefield, and Tinirau Arona but Castleford held on for the victory.
Tigers: Mata’utia, Clare, Minikin, Shenton, Eden, Trueman, Aston, Watts, Milner, Sene-Lefao, Holmes, McMeeken, Massey; Interchanges: Moors, Clark, O’Neill, Smith
Tries: Clare 2, Sene-Lefao, Aston, Minikin; Goals: Mata’utia 4
Trinity: Jowitt, Jones-Bishop, Lyne, Arundel, Caton-Brown, Reynolds, Hampshire, Fifita, Wood, Arona, Ashurst, Kirmond, Crowther; Interchanges; Pauli, Kopczak, King, Hirst
Tries: Caton-Brown; Arundel, Reynolds, Arona; Goals: Hampshire 3
Full match reports of all Thursday and Good Friday Super League games will feature in Monday’s League Express.