Castleford Tigers 16 Leeds Rhinos 14: Incoming Leeds Rhinos coach will have something to work with - despite another defeat

Yesterday’s 16-14 defeat at Castleford Tigers left Leeds second from bottom in Super League, one point ahead of Friday’s visitors Toulouse Olympique.

Rhinos have won just once in 10 competitive games, making this the worst start to a season in the club’s history, but they followed last Thursday’s draw against Huddersfield Giants with a spirited display at Wheldon Road.

Half-back Jack Sinfield, son of Rhinos legend Kevin and centre Max Simpson both 17, made their debut and Leeds lost stand-off Blake Austin to a head injury, which will rule him out of Friday’s game, inside the opening 10 minutes. Trailing 8-0 at the end of the first quarter, Rhinos hit back to level the scores just before the hour mark and Castleford did not regain control until Leeds’ James Bentley was sin-binned just after the hour.

The last eight of the hosts’ points came against 12 men, but Leeds pulled a converted try back in the closing stages and were the better team for much of an admittedly poor-quality derby.

Leeds have lost three of their four games under interim-coach Jamie Jones-Buchanan.

He admitted he does not expect to be in charge in three days’ time, but feels advances have been made since he took over from Richard Agar a month ago.

“There’s a lot of young blokes doing it really tough, who played exceptionally well - people like Morgan Gannon, Jarrod O’Connor, young Jack Sinfield and Max Simpson,” said Jones-Buchanan after yesterday’s game.

“They stood up to be counted for long periods.

“They are really young, inexperienced players and I get my joy now from what that might look like in six, 12 or 18 months’ time, when those boys have got a few more miles on the clock.

“From where it was a month ago, the boys have come really together.

“It is difficult for me to evidence this, but if you ask the players and the staff how they are feeling right now, it is a million miles away from where they were four or five weeks ago.”

Castleford looked to be cruising when unconverted tries by James Clare, in his first appearance this season and Derrell Olpherts got them off to a strong start.

But Tigers lost their way after that; though they defended strongly, they made a steady succession of errors and Leeds, who had looked like being blown away, grew in confidence.

Rhyse Martin took advantage of an error by Jake Mamo to score a try which he also converted on the stroke of half-time, then levelled through a penalty goal.

Gareth O’Brien took two points after Bentley’s yellow card then converted a try by Liam Watts, before Martin crossed again and completed the scoring with his third goal.

It was Castleford’s third successive league win and their coach Lee Radford reflected: “It was an awful game to watch, but in a strange way, the messiness of what we produced probably makes the win at the end a bit more gratifying.

“The intensity of the game, decision-making and skill and execution were all really slack, but we defended well - I thought that was a positive.

“They got a try from a kick and the last one was a disappointing one to concede, but it was a four-day turnaround performance.”

Castleford Tigers: Evalds, Olpherts, Mamo, Fonua, Clare, Trueman, O’Brien, Watts, McShane, Griffin, Edwards, Milner, Westerman. Subs Massey, Hepi, Smith, Qareqare.

Leeds Rhinos: Sutcliffe, Briscoe, Simpson, Mellor, Handley, Austin, Sinfield, Oledzki, Leeming, Thompson, Bentley, Martin, O’Connor. Subs Tetevano, Dwyer, Gannon, Donaldson.

Referee: Liam Moore (Wigan).