Side before himself for Castleford Tigers stalwart Oliver Holmes

MILESTONE MAN Oliver Holmes has put team achievements ahead of individual accolades.
Castleford's Oliver Holmes.Castleford's Oliver Holmes.
Castleford's Oliver Holmes.

Holmes scored a try on his 200th appearance for Castleford Tigers, but insisted he was happier about the two points after a hard-fought 32-15 victory over Wakefield Trinity.

“First and foremost we got the win, which was the most important thing – and I managed to get my yearly try against Wakey,” he said.

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“But most importantly, I was happy with the performance in the second half.”

Holmes has a good scoring record against Trinity, but admitted: “I don’t know why, it just seems to happen.

“I just find myself in the right time at the right place, so I can’t complain.”

His latest try came off a kick from Jake Trueman and he conceded: “It was a bit of luck with a bounce of the ball and I just finished it off.

“I was happy with that.”

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It was particularly satisfying as moments earlier referee James Child had indicated a penalty try when Holmes appeared to be obstructed as he chased Paul McShane’s kick.

Video official Tom Grant said ‘no try’, but sin-binned Wakefield’s James Batchelor for a professional foul.

Holmes, not surprisingly, felt a penalty try would have been justified.

He recalled: “I thought I would have got there.

“I don’t know if that would have counted as my try.

“I was asking on the field ‘is that mine’? It didn’t get given, but it came later.”

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Most importantly for Castleford, the derby win was a positive reply after their first defeat of the season, six days earlier away at the Catalans Dragons.

“We had a bit of a tough week,” Holmes admitted.

“Powelly [coach Daryl Powell] wasn’t happy with the performance there and rightly so.

“We weren’t happy as a team so we talked about a response and I think we got that, especially in the second half.”

Trinity led 15-14 at half-time, but Castleford dominated the second period after grabbing a try before the visitors had been in possession.

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Holmes said: “We sorted our discipline out, cut out the errors and the penalties. We talked about playing more down in their half. We didn’t do that much in the first half, but we knew when we were down there we could cause them some problems.

“I think we definitely did that in the second half and it paid dividends.”