Leeds Rhinos Under-18s built on their opening round win as Chev Walker’s side put Castleford Tigers Under-18s to the sword in a ten-try display to win 54-12 at The Jungle.

The game was all but over in the first half as the young Rhinos scored five tries to establish a healthy lead. In the opening exchanges of the game, a knock on by Castleford in their opening set allowed the Leeds attack to flex their muscles and Jacob Hardy was able to convert the chance into points as he bullied his way over the line to open the scoring.

Leeds’ continued to dominate possession and pin the Tigers back by their own try line,  but Castleford, who had put a good performance together a fortnight earlier against Bradford, managed to force a try against the run of play to level the score. Sonny Wall’s kick cross-field caught Leeds out as the ball came back off Oscar Brown and into the arms of Bradley Bullock, who was waiting to pounce. Wall added the conversion to lock the score up at 6-6 after 15 minutes.

The remainder of the half belonged to Leeds though, as the visitors put together some great moves that resulted in tries. Castleford allowed the ball to bounce out of play straight from the restart and Joe Diskin made sure the error was punished as he darted over out of dummy half.

Walker gave four players their Academy debuts for the Tigers’ test and two of them made their dents in the first half scoring. Tom Richardson finished off a nice scrum play in the corner to give Leeds a ten point cushion, before Wade White scored one of the tries of the night as he supported Dan Stelfox’s break to score his first under the posts.

Stelfox went from try assister to try scorer as half time loomed, as the prop barrelled his way to the line with a bulldozing effort to take Leeds closer to 30 points at the break; a deficit the Tigers couldn’t recover from.

A quick start to the second half saw Leeds continue to pillage Castleford for points with three tries before the final 20 minutes.

Hardy was on hand to get his second, after some great work by George Brown and Harry Smith opened up space for the centre to hit a hole and touch down. The Tigers weren’t helping themselves by the errors they were giving away either, which led to Oscar Brown forcing his way to the try line to take the scoreline closer to 40 points.

White’s second score kept the scoreboard ticking over, but Oliver Meillam got a response for Castleford as the substitute hit a hole in the Rhinos line to get a consolation effort for the home side.

Leeds on the other hand weren’t done; George Brown cancelled the Tigers try out as the half back cut clean through to score a great solo effort. The night belonged to Hardy though as Brown helped set up the Leeds centre for his hat trick try to cap a great night for the young Rhinos. Zak Lloyd slotted seven of ten conversions to make the final score 54-12.

Teams

Tigers Under-18s

1. Tylor Sharpe, 2. Leroy Ncube, 3. Harrison Jewitt, 4. Sean Coughlan, 5. Alfie Lindsey, 6. Corey-Jae Sharpe, 7. Sonny Wall, 8. Jay Dawson, 9. Taylor Robinson, 10. Bradley Bullock, 11. Samuel Grice, 12. Alfie Salmon, 13. Rhys Firth

Subs: 14. Mitchell Beedle, 15. Leon Nestor, 16. Oliver Meillam, 17. Harrison Simpson (18^th Man – Jack Pallister)

Tries: Bullock (15), Meillam (62)

Goals: Wall 1/1, Beedle 1/1

Rhinos Under-18s

1. Wade White, 2. Callum Webster, 3. Jacob Hardy, 4. Oscar Brown, 5. Tom Richardson, 6. George Brown, 7. Harry Smith, 8. Daniel Stelfox, 9. Joe Diskin, 10. Dacx Jones-Buchanan, 11. Zak Lloyd, 12. Noah Whittingham, 13. Presley Cassell

Subs: 14. Elliott Fox, 15. Lore Jones-Buchanan, 16. Cobi Ellis, 17. Evan Jones (18^th Man – Harvey Butterworth)

Tries: Hardy (3, 44, 72), Diskin (18), Richardson (21), White (24, 59), Stelfox (32), O.Brown (55), G.Brown (66)

Goals: Lloyd 7/10