Castleford Tigers 36 Widness Vikings 12: Youngquest leads way to ensure Castleford halt losing run

The Tigers had lost their previous three matches, including a demoralising defeat to Featherstone Rovers in the Carnegie Challenge Cup, but they were comfortably the better side in a scrappy encounter yesterday afternoon.

The gap was just two points at the interval but second-half tries from Jordan Thompson, three from Youngquest and Daryl Clark’s second of the afternoon condemned the Vikings to their sixth consecutive defeat.

Castleford coach Ian Millward was happy to pick up the two points, but believed his players could have made life easier for themselves.

“It was sort of a weird game,” he said. “Defensively we were very strong in regard to we didn’t look like conceding tries.

“The try they scored was from a kick and then they scored one with a couple of seconds to go.

“Our kicking game was really poor which didn’t give us a chance to get some field positions and build a bit of pressure and get some continuity. I thought at times our attack in the first half lacked a bit of patience and it wasn’t fluent. But that’s what happens when you’ve had a couple of losses in a row – you lack a little bit of confidence.”

Brett Ferres thought he had opened the scoring for Castleford after bursting past Stefan Marsh to touch down but referee Steve Ganson ruled the centre had been held up.

Widnes loose forward Simon Finnigan suffered a leg injury in the build-up and his afternoon was curtailed after he was stretchered off the field.

The Vikings, who had conceded 262 points in their previous five matches, were showing signs of indiscipline, with the penalty count racking up early on, and Ben Cross gave away another for obstructing Ferres deep in his own territory. Although Richie Owen was held up on the right, the ball was quickly spread back across the field for Ferres to score.

However, with their first real opportunity, the visitors levelled when Joe Mellor’s short kick to the right was pouched by Paddy Flynn, who outjumped Youngquest to touch down, with Hanbury scoring the conversion.

Both sides had chances but Castleford slowly started to take the initiative and only a tremendous last-gasp tackle prevented Josh Griffin from scoring after Danny Orr had made the breakaway.

The ball was quickly passed to Clark on the left and although he crossed, the video referee ruled there had been a double movement. Clark would not be denied a second time, however, and exploited a gap in the Widnes defence from dummy half for his side’s second try. Orr added the extras to give the Tigers a 10-6 lead, but Widnes scrum-half Rhys Hanbury kicked a penalty on the stroke of half-time to narrow the gap to just two points.

A rather scrappy start to the second half ensued, with both sides guilty of committing several handling errors in key areas.

However, Thompson extended Castleford’s lead by spinning away from two Widnes defenders before scampering over.

Widnes’s situation was worsened when Hanbury’s grubber fell to Ferres and he passed to Youngquest, who sprinted the length of the field to touch down, with Craig Huby adding the extras after Orr had left the field due to a troublesome back injury.

Youngquest, pictured, added his second from Ferres’s high cut-out pass and registered his hat-trick on the left to give Castleford a 30-8 lead as the Vikings threatened to completely capitulate.

Clark then added his second of the afternoon, bursting over unchallenged, and Griffin added the conversion before Marsh ended Widnes’s woeful second half with a flourish after crossing on the right.

Castleford Tigers: Owen, Youngquest, Ferres, Dixon, Griffin, McGoldrick, Orr, Massey, Hudson, Huby, Mitchell, Millington, Jones. Substitutes: Emmitt, Clark, Walker, Thompson.

Widnes Vikings: Phelps, Flynn, Marsh, Dean, Isa, Mellor, Hanbury, Cross, Clarke, Cahill, Winterstein, Allen, Finnigan. Substitutes: White, Davies, Pickersgill, Leuluai.

Referee: Steve Ganson (St Helens).