Castleford Tigers 18 Catalans Dragons 8: Tigers triumph in play-off hunt

Castleford Tigers maintained their challenge for the Betfred Super League play-offs with a battling 18-8 victory over Catalans Dragons at the Jungle.

The win enabled the Tigers to stay in front of form team Leeds and close the gap on the fourth-placed Catalans to four points with four games left of the regular season

Paul McShane led the way in his makeshift role of half-back in the absence of an injured Danny Richardson while his partner Gareth O’Brien crucially kicked five goals from as many attempts.

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The French club, who had spent the week in West Yorkshire following their win over Wakefield five days earlier, rallied after trailing 14-0 and tries either side of half-time from Sam Tomkins and Joe Chan got them back in contention but Tomkins was unable to add either conversion.

Castleford Tigers' Gareth O'Brien runs in to score his side's first try.Castleford Tigers' Gareth O'Brien runs in to score his side's first try.
Castleford Tigers' Gareth O'Brien runs in to score his side's first try.

The visitors carved out the first scoring opportunity through second rower Chan and the Tigers were grateful for a last-ditch tackle from McShane to haul him down short of the line.

Castleford were more clinical when they created an opening, scrum-half O’Brien dummying his way past Tomkins for the first try after 11 minutes.

O’Brien kicked the conversion and added a penalty for offside midway through the first half to extend his side’s lead to 8-0.

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That quickly became 14-0 when the Tigers pounced on a handling error from Napa on his own 20-metre line with full-back Greg Eden slicing through for their second try.

The Dragons pulled a try back when Tomkins found a chink in the home defence but he was wide with the conversion.

The England captain was also off target when the dangerous Chan forced his way over for the Catalans’ second try.

O’Brien put two scores between the sides with another penalty on the hour but the Catalans threw caution to the wind in the final quarter.

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The home side defended heroically in the face on the constant onslaught and, when Kasiano was held up over the line, it signalled the end of the Dragons’ hopes and O’Brien wrapped up the scoring with his third penalty.

Bureta Faraimo went close to scoring a third Tigers try but he was denied by Tomkins and the hosts finished with 12 men when Suaia Matagi was sin-binned.

Castleford: Eden, Faraimo, Sutcliffe, Fonua, Olpherts, McShane, O’Brien, Lawler, Milner, Griffin, Mellor, Edwards, Westerman. Substitutes: Smith, Matagi, Martin, Qaraqare.

Catalans Dragons: Tomkins, Davies, Whare, May, Franco, Pearce, Drinkwater, Seguier, McIlorum, Napa, J. Chan, Jullien, Da Costa. Substitutes: Mourgue, Le Cam, Cozza, Kasiano.

Referee: Tom Grant (RFL).

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