Castleford Tigers Reserves 6 Leeds Rhinos Reserves 68

A 13-try performance, including three from winger Riley Lumb, saw Leeds Rhinos Reserves claim their first win since the season split with a dominant 68-6 triumph over Castleford Tigers Reserves at The OneBore Stadium.

Two weeks on from a tough tussle with the Reserves league-leading Wigan Warriors, Chev Walker’s side looked to initially be in for another tough afternoon as the home side found the first points of the day through Samuel Grice. Jeremiah Mata’utia’s charge down on Sonny Wall’s kick earned the Tigers a fresh set of six. As they pushed downfield, Alfie Salmon cut between both Mata’utia and Zak Lloyd to close in on the try line, before offloading for Grice to force his way over.

The score proved to be the only blot on an almost perfect afternoon for the young Rhinos, who bounced back to score 68 unanswered points over the next 75 minutes. A break by Ned McCormack set Leeds’ attack up as they looked to respond immediately after conceding. Despite a move to the opposite side of the field ending in Callum Webster putting the ball down, the away side got a fortunate offside penalty to keep the ball down by the Tigers’ try line. Two plays into the set, a Harry Smith pass across the face of the Castleford defence found Oliver Smart, who forced his way through full back Fletcher Rooney to get the ball on the ground.

Off the back of Castleford’s kick-off sailing over the dead ball line, the Rhinos utilised the field position again to their advantage as Mata’utia made up for his earlier error by trundling his way to the try line in his first Reserves outing since April. On the next attacking set, the visitors came away with points again through Riley Lumb as great buildup play from Jacob Hardy and Smith’s pinpoint cross-field kick found the free-scoring winger for his first of three tries.

Now down by ten points, the Tigers suffered a double blow when Jay Haywood-Scriven was taken from the field, before Ned McCormack and Lumb combined for the winger’s second try. Elliott Fox also added to the Leeds lead off the back of a scrum play, after Harry Egley was penalised for a poor play of the ball. Shifting down the short side, McCormack bounced out of tackles to set the Rhinos away, and Fox was on his inside in support to finish another brilliant try.

A 24-6 score line gave Leeds license to play, and they managed to add two more tries before the break. Substitute Evan Jones was unlucky not to get over the try line after taking a Smith kick, but the prop was held up, and a creative kick ahead from Lumb was also unfortunate not to come off as the Tigers were hanging on until the break. Inevitably, the Rhinos broke through as Lloyd forced his way over by the posts, before the loose forward supported a break by Smith to take Leeds into a 36-6 lead at the break.

Six more tries in the second half confirmed a resounding win as the Rhinos kept hold of third spot in the standings with three games to go before the semi-finals.

Showcasing their defensive resolve by forcing Castleford to kick from deep in their first attacking set of the new half, Leeds were instantly rewarded with a try as Ned McCormack skipped around Jacob Hall to get a well-deserved try. The Leeds centre’s work was far from done as a huge hit on Tylor Sharpe halted a Tigers attack in its tracks and a desperate pass from Fletcher Rooney was intercepted by Lumb to score his hat trick try.

With Castleford unable to find a foothold in the contest to prevent any more points, a knock-on by Wall quickly saw Leeds motor downfield, and after Ben Littlewood was denied a try by an offside call against the home side, the second rower marked his return to the side by bundling his way through the tackle of Saul Campbell to make the score 52-6 with 20 minutes remaining.

Hardy kept the scoreboard ticking over as the centre latched onto Smith’s grubber kick ahead to close the Rhinos in on 60 points – a mark that was reached thanks to prop Hughie Tinkler. The Tigers looked to have stemmed the flow of Leeds points as they began to go blow for blow with the visitors, only for an obstruction call against Will Gardner to gift the visitors possession back by the try line. Smart had been upended on the play before, but as Fox wrestled his way out of dummy half, the hooker found an offload for Tinkler to go over for his first score of the Reserves season.

Ready to enact the game’s final blow, it was fitting that a second Lumb interception would set the Rhinos up for a 60-point triumph. The Leeds winger read Rooney’s pass perfectly to steal the ball away, and even after Sharpe got back to stop Lumb, Chev Walker’s side didn’t panic as they moved across the field to put Webster in to score and confirm a 68-6 final score.

Teams

Tigers

1. Fletcher Rooney, 2. Jacob Hall, 3. Sean Coughlan, 4. Daniel Sarbah, 5. Harrison Jewitt, 6. Tylor Sharpe, 7. Sonny Wall, 8. Woody Walker, 9. Corey Jay-Sharpe, 10. Samuel Grice, 11. Saul Campbell, 12. Jay Haywood-Scriven, 13. Alfie Salmon

Subs: 14. George Power, 15. Harry Egley, 16. Max Grinhaff, 17. William Gardner (18^th Man: Harrison Simpson)

Tries: Grice

Goals: Wall 1/1

Rhinos

1. Fergus McCormack, 2. Callum Webster, 3. Jacob Hardy, 4. Ned McCormack, 5. Riley Lumb, 6. Harley Thomas, 7. Harry Smith, 8. Jacob Stead, 9. Elliott Fox, 10. Jeremiah Mata’utia, 11. Ben Littlewood, 12. Oliver Smart, 13. Zak Lloyd

Subs: 14. Harvey Butterworth, 15. Evan Jones, 16. Hughie Tinkler, 17. Tom Richardson (18^th Man – Jacob Tooala)

Tries: Smart, Mata’utia, Lumb x3, Fox, Lloyd x2, N.McCormack, Littlewood, Hardy, Tinkler, Webster

Goals: Thomas 8/13