Castleford Tigers’ Grant Millington determined to improve defensively after escaping ban

The Australian had been charged by the match review panel with two separate offences during Sunday’s hard-fought 10-0 defeat against champions St Helens.

He was handed a one-game penalty notice for a dangerous contact on their French half-back Theo Fages but Castleford director of rugby Jon Wells successfully argued his case and the panel ruled a caution was sufficient.

Millington then accepted a Grade A charge of dangerous contact on Jonny Lomax which had not been recommended to carry a sanction so he is free to play against Salford Red Devils in their next game on September 3.

After being out of action for five months due to lockdown, the 33-year-old is certainly glad to be not facing another enforced break.

Still, in a tight game where the only try was Fages’s 77th–minute effort, the veteran forward was “disappointed” with his off-the-ball challenge on Lomax.

It cost him a yellow card and saw Saints take a 2-0 lead in the 48th minute, an advantage they would never relinquish.

Millington recalled: “They got me with a trick play. I read the inside ball quite easily but then he passed across the face of me.

“I’ve just got to be better at pulling out. It happened so fast but it cost us two points and put me in the sin-bin.

“It was obviously not ideal but we held on defensively. I think the ref got me for the shoulder charge but Danny Richardson got put on his backside quite often during the game and nothing happened.

“I’m not saying they were shoulder charges but they were all late.

“Especially in a tight game, though, to gift them two points when you know it could be the difference, I was quite disappointed in myself more than the ref’s call. It put us in a vulnerable position where Saints had an opportunity to play against 12 men.

“It was poor and I’ve got to be better at avoiding that sort of stuff in the future.”

He added: “I’m glad the other challenge was revised to a caution. To be honest, when the charges came out I had no idea what it was for. Wellsy did a great job arguing our case and thankfully the judiciary agreed.”

Millington is well versed with Super League having first arrived in the UK with the West Yorkshire club in 2012.

Yet, the physically brutal game was still a real eye-opener for the former Cronulla Sharks star.

Both sides played out a high-quality contest where the ‘six again’ rule and no scrums –brought in to help reduce the potential spread of Covid-19 –produced some energy-zapping performances.

Castleford pushed the champions close and Millington revealed how some team-mates were left incredulous by the intensity and speed of the contest.

“It was really intense and especially in that first period,” he said.

“The ball was in play for a really long time. Speaking to some of the lads who started the game, they said they looked up at the clock at seven minutes in and couldn’t believe how little time had passed. And it was relentless the whole way through.”

Castleford defeated them at Wheldon Road in March in the last game before lockdown and – though they did not succeed last weekend – Millington is confident they have the tools to challenge them for the Super League title.

“We look at what they’ve done the last few weeks and know they play quite a simple game but they do it really well,” he added. “The word relentless sums them up; they just keep coming and coming at you. You might deal with it seven, eight times but they’ll get you on the ninth and tenth.

“We matched them at it Sunday and obviously a few penalties and a try in the last few minutes proved the difference but we’ve given ourselves a blueprint of how to play against them to continue for the rest of the season.

“We’re more than confident we can challenge for silverware.”

Meanwhile, in a total of 563 Covid tests taken across Super League this week, there has been just one positive – the non-playing St Helens member of staff who has since had a negative result on a subsequent test.

There has been no further positive tests at Hull FC.

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James Mitchinson