Castleford Tigers 26 Leeds Rhinos 10

A youthful Leeds Rhinos side battled hard but were ultimately caught out as they lost 26-10 to Castleford Tigers in Brad Singleton’s Testimonial match.

On a rainy January afternoon at The OneBore Stadium, Transition Coach Chev Walker led a side made up of Academy and Reserves talent against Singleton and a Tigers outfit which included new signings Aidan Doolan, Jimmy Beckett and familiar Super League names Louis Senior, George Hill and Fletcher Rooney. After Leeds took the early lead with Tom Richardson, the home side battled back late in the first half to get a foothold in the game, before three tries in the last 15 minutes secured a first win of 2026 for Scott Murrell and Ryan Carr’s side.

Walker’s side was made up of the majority of names who helped the club to both the Reserves and Academy Grand Finals in 2025, notably Oscar Brown, Harry Smith, Marcus Qareqare, Tom Nicholson-Watton and Jacob Stead, who also got an outing on Boxing Day. The match also gave players in the first and second year of the Under-18s Academy squad an opportunity for valuable minutes ahead of the start of their season next month – notably Jacob Tooala, Sonny Hetherington and Robin Smith, who came off the bench in the contest.

Fans who braved the conditions were treated to a contest which saw both teams go head-to-head from kick-off. Despite Castleford’s squad containing a handful of more experienced names, the Rhinos met the challenge by putting pressure on the Tigers early on and got their rewards when Tom Richardson got the opening points on the ten-minute mark. Benefitting from Rooney dropping a high bomb, Leeds worked the Tigers’ defence by their own try line and eventually found a mismatch as Dylan Hutchinson fired a pass across the face of the Tigers’ defence to put Richardson over in the corner.

Buoyed by securing the first points of the afternoon, a mixture of a flowing Leeds attack and ill-discipline from Castleford should have seen the Rhinos add more points with Tom Nicholson-Watton. The loose forward’s first chance saw him take an inside pass from Ben Littlewood, but the pass was ruled forward by referee Tom Grant. He then thought he had a free run to the try line from short range, only for hooker Joe Diskin’s short pass to also be called forward.

Having struggled to get anywhere near their opposition try line in the first half hour, Cas made the breakthrough on the scoreboard with a quick-fire double to take their first lead of the afternoon. Off the back of Harley Thomas losing the ball in a promising position for the away side, the Tigers returned the ball the length of the field, and Sam Grice finished the attack over the try line.

Castleford’s experience then started to show as Louis Senior kick-started a Tigers attack from deep in their own half and set up Jenson Windley for the home side’s second try before the break. Rooney converted both tries to make the score 12-4 at the break.

Leeds made the perfect start to the second period as a sensational try from Oscar Brown looked to ignite an exciting 40 minutes. Within the opening exchanges since coming out for the second half, the Rhinos started to throw the ball around with Littlewood and Nicholson-Watton, which led to the ball finding Brown running back against the grain, and the centre broke clean through the Tigers’ defence. Even with Rooney to beat, Brown showed great composure and pace to make sure he found the try line to finish an incredible try.

With the teams separated by two points on the scoreboard, both sets of players began to show their defensive resolve as chances for points came few and far between.  Richardson and Daniel Sarbah had notable opportunities as the half continued, but it took until the 65^th minute for points to be added to the scoreboard.

Quick hands from Castleford posted Yorkshire Academy winger Tylor Sharpe in the corner, but the game was still in the balance for Leeds, who were only six points behind. The game was eventually decided by two substitutes, Sean Caughlin and Mitchell Beedle, as the Tigers came away with the win.

Rooney, who was one of the players of the game for the Tigers, floated a pass over the top for Sarbah, who managed to find Caughlin with a ball back on the inside to score. Beedle then ensured the home side got the win as Harrison Jewitt got a kick over the Leeds defence and Beedle was the first man to touch it down before the ball rolled dead. Rooney converted his fourth kick of the afternoon to give Castleford, and man of the moment Singleton, a 26-10 final score.