| Betfred Super League |
|---|
| Castleford Tigers (20) 44 |
| Tries: Blair, Trueman 3, Clare, Rankin, Cook Goals: Ellis 8 |
| Hull FC (6) 12 |
| Tries: Matongo, Logan Goals: Sneyd 2 |
Castleford Tigers kept their hopes of reaching the Super League play-offs alive by beating fellow top-five challengers Hull FC.
Tigers raced into a 20-0 lead as Cheyse Blair crossed and Jake Trueman scored twice before Masi Matongo replied for the visitors before the break.
Trueman completed his hat-trick before Jack Logan’s notched a breakaway try.
Tries from James Clare, Jordan Rankin and Matt Cook secured the victory, as Tigers moved above Hull and into fifth.
Hull started the evening two points ahead of Castleford, but their defeat means the race for the play-offs will go to the final round of fixtures.
Lee Radford’s side have been beaten in four of their past five league matches, losing momentum following their Challenge Cup semi-final defeat by Warrington Wolves at the end of July, and now find themselves in sixth place – with an inferior points difference to the sides above them.
Castleford started brightly, with Blair reaching over to notch his first try for the club and Trueman scoring a quick-fire double after twice wrong-footing the Hull defence.
Hull scored from their first meaningful attack through Matongo, and were denied a second try on the stroke of half-time when Tevita Satae was held up over the line by Trueman.
Half-back Trueman got his third score of the evening following a Hull handling error soon after the restart and the hosts underlined their dominance in the final 10 minutes with three tries – culminating with prop Cook crossing on his return from a six-game absence with a throat infection.
Castleford head coach Daryl Powell:
“Defensively we’re so much better and attitude-wise we’re in a great place. We know we’re outsiders but it doesn’t really matter to us.
“We’ve been talking for the last three weeks about being in play-off mode now and that’s helped us. We’re playing with confidence and without fear.
“We’ve got to go to Wigan next week which is always a tough battle. Everybody said we had a tough run-in but it’s been perfect, it couldn’t be any better.
“If we are in the five and we’re good enough, we’ll be a challenge for everybody.”
Hull FC coach Lee Radford:
“Everything we said we didn’t want to do, we went out there and did it unfortunately.
“If you don’t learn in this game from things you’ve done previously that haven’t worked for you, then you’re always going to be in that same position.
“We’ve had three shots to get in that (top) five now and if you don’t adapt and change things, you’re always going to get the same outcome and that’s what we’ve got again.
“We saved some of the strangest decisions for the biggest of stages unfortunately.”
Castleford: Rankin, Clare, Mata’utia, Blair, Minikin, Trueman, Ellis, Watts, McShane, Millington, Sene-Lefao, McMeeken, Massey.
Replacements: Holmes, Milner, Cook, Smith.
Hull: Shaul, Naulago, Connor, Tuimavave, Logan, Kelly, Sneyd, Taylor, Houghton, Paea, Manu, Griffin, Ellis.
Replacements: Bowden, Matongo, Minichiello, Satae.
Sin bin: Shaul (55), Connor (77).
Referee: Ben Thaler (RFL).
