Castleford Tigers 26 Catalan Dragons 46: No dream farewell for exiting Tigers as Catalan regain fourth

Tigers captain Danny Orr, another man playing his last match at the Probiz Coliseum as he edges closer to retirement, also got on the scoresheet with three goals but the Catalan Dragons were in no mood for sentiment as they cruised to victory.

Full-back Clint Greenshields and winger Damien Blanch both scored hat-tricks as the French side secured their first away win for two months to reclaim fourth place in the table, while the Tigers are in serious danger of collecting the wooden spoon in coach Ian Millward’s first season.

Trailing 40-12 after an hour, Castleford rallied to score three tries in the final quarter to add respectability to the scoreline.

There was also an impressive performance from reigning Man of Steel Rangi Chase on only his second appearance in almost three months while hooker Daryl Clark showed some nice touches on his comeback after spending more than three months on the sidelines with a knee injury.

But the Catalans, who gave a debut to forward Antoni Maria, always looked a class apart, despite the absence of the injured Leon Pryce.

Grant Millington and Richard Owen also scored tries for Castleford and, despite the disappointment, Millward was able to draw on some positives.

“It was probably a reflection on our season today,” said Millward.

“We created opportunities but came up with some errors.

“We lost two players very early in the game when Jamie Ellis dislocated his shoulder and Steve Nash got a quite horrendous head injury.

“I’ve got to take my hat off to the players for the way they tried very hard in the second half.

“We were trying some things in attack which I was looking to the future with and we got 20-something points out of it so there are some positives there.

“They scored two tries from intercepts and a couple from kicks and they all add up. I thought (Scott) Dureau kicked oustandingly well today.”

Catalan coach Trent Robinson was delighted with the debut of front row forward Maria Antoni, who got his chance after David Ferriol pulled out through illness.

“It was a great debut from Maria,” he said.

“There was some good stuff but we lacked consistency in the game. That was the negative part, we fluctuated in our control of the game.”

Castleford Tigers: Owen, Youngquest, Snitch, Jones, Thompson, Chase, Ellis, Massey, Orr, Huby, Millington, Hudson, Milner. Substitutes: Clark, Mitchell, Holmes, Nash. Catalan Dragons: Greenshields, Blanch, Millard, Duport, Pala, Bosc, Dureau, Mounis, Henderson, Casty, Sa, Anderson, Baitieri. Substitutes: Pelissier, Fakir, Maria, Larroyer.

Referee: T Roby (RFL).