Danny Richardson inspires Castleford Tigers to scorching of Toulouse Olympique

Coach Lee Radford’s side dealt with heatwave conditions and an injury-hit squad to bring home the points.

Radford could only name an initial 20-man squad for this fixture but the patched-up Tigers fought tooth and nail in the blistering sunshine of the south of France. The Tigers put in a brave and defiant performance against the strugglers.

A dynamic handling and kicking display by Danny Richardson in his first full game back at number seven following a long-term neck injury inspired the Tigers from start to finish.

Tigers coach Radford praised his players for dealing with the heat. He said: “That’s a really rewarding result in such hot conditions. Prior to arriving they said it would be around the 31 degrees area but with the sun it felt much hotter pitch-side.

“It’s impossible to prepare for that, even the home team struggled but I can understand why they complete high and get very methodical in these conditions, you have to, to survive.

“We took our opportunities well, and so did they, we need to work on our right edge defence.”

It took until the 25th minute of the game before the tense deadlock was broken when Toulouse earned two set restarts and a penalty to put pressure on the Castleford line where full-back Olly Ashall-Bott glided through some tiring defence. Chris Hankinson’s conversion put Toulouse 6-0 ahead. But Castleford hit back when Ashall-Bott lost the ball in midfield and substitute Suaia Matagi forced his way over the line. Matty Russell latched onto a sweeping move left to cross in the corner, Hankinson landing the conversion from the touchline to push Toulouse in front at 12-6.

The next break came Castleford’s way when Ryan Hampshire raced 80 metres to set up field position for prop George Griffin to strike.

Richardson and Hankinson traded penalties before Fonua forced his way over the line with a powerful short-range burst in the 72nd minute, Richardson again on target to put Castleford 20-14 in front.