Hull KR 26 Castleford 10: Ill-discipline hampers Tigers’ hopes of getting off mark

Tigers defended spiritedly throughout, but some ill-discipline let them down and they had few chances to put Rovers under pressure on attack.

Two of Tigers’ ex-Hull contingent, Bureta Faraimo and Liam Watts, were sin-binned in quick succession early in the game and the visitors were on the wrong end of the penalty count.

The first half was certainly eventful as Tigers found themselves down to 11 players for a spell, survived that to take a narrow lead, but then conceded on the stroke of the interval and trailed 8-6 at half-time.

Cas would probably have taken that, considering the amount of pressure they had been under and they could certainly be pleased with how they worked for each other in defence.

That hard work, though, inevitably took its toll and Castleford looked tired as the game wore on.

The Robins increased their lead soon after half-time, but Castelford were still in the game until two tries in quick succession finished them off.

Tigers went a man down when Will Dagger - playing at full-back for Rovers with star signing Lachlan Coote on the injury list - took a high bomb and was wiped out by Faraimo.

In the current climate it was probably a card, but Dagger 
was falling at the time he was hit, so the yellow was the right call.

That was on 18 minutes and Rovers took advantage four minutes later when Matt Parcell broke through the middle with Jordan Abdull in support.

O’Brien did well to pull him down, but the Robins moved play left and Shaun Kenny-Dowall stepped past Cheyse Blair for a fine try.

It wasn’t converted, but things went from bad to worse for Tigers as Watts, who had just been introduced off the bench, was yellow carded for a foul in the build-up to the try, the big prop having caught Mikey Lewis high after the ball had been passed.

Tigers held out with 11 men and Watts was prowling the touchline waiting to come back on when Jordan Turner’s 100th career try got them level - the centre finishing well off a terrific pass by Jake Trueman - and Gareth O’Brien converted from wide out to edge the visitors ahead.

Tigers would have been pinching themselves if they had led at the break, but Rovers came up with a well-worked try just two minutes before the interval to go in with a two-point lead.

A penalty for obstruction turned a Tigers attack into defence, then Brad Takairangi got the ball away to Lewis and he sent Sam Wood over at the corner, too far out for Abdull to add the extras.

Tigers’ task got harder 12 minutes into the second half when Wood, Rovers’ towering right-winger, scoped up a low pass from Abdull and barged over the top of Derrell Olpherts.

Abdull finally got his radar working to convert from the touchline.

Rovers’ speed caused Castleford problems all evening and with 16 minutes left, Wood sent Lewis dashing away and he drew the full-back before sending Parcell over to give Abdull a simple conversion.

Moments later, Takairangi stepped through for the hosts’ fifth try, which Abdull again goaled and only a brilliant tackle by Niall Evalds prevented Lewis scoring direct from that restart.

With eight minutes left, Faraimo pulled an unconverted try back after good handling by O’Brien and Evalds, but it was too little too late.

Hull KR: Dagger, Wood, Takairangi, Kenny-Dowall, Hall, Lewis, ASbdull, Storton, Pacell, King, Halton, Linnett, Minchella. Substitutes: Litten, Richards, Garratt, Laulu-Togaga’e.

Castleford Tigers: Evalds, Olpherts, Turner, Fonua, Faraimo, Trueman, O’Brien, Massey, McShane, Griffin, Sutcliffe, Blair, Westerman. Substitutes: Watts, Smith, matagi, Robb.

Referee: Liam Moore (Wigan).

Attendance: 7,119.