Leeds Rhinos 34 Castleford Tigers 20: Magic Weekend match report

Castleford led 10-6 at half-time, but Leeds went ahead soon afterwards and added three tries in eight minutes either side of the hour to take a firm group on the game.

They were 34-10 ahead before Tigers scored a couple of consolation tries, the second after Aidan Sezer had been sin-binned for a high tackle on Danny Richardson.

With Zak Hardaker having gone off in the second half and Blake Austin missing the game due to a calf injury, that is a concern for Leeds.

Rhinos loose-forward Cameron Smith was named man of the match, but Sezer and Richie Myler were also hugely influential.

Niall Evalds, in his first game since suffering a biceps injury against Rhinos at Easter, played well for Cas and Joe Westerman and two-try Bureta Faraimo impressed.

The early stages were played at Leeds’ end of the field, but there were no chances until Rhinos opened the scoring after 13 minutes in their first attack, Matt Prior powering over from Jarrod O’Connor’s pass for a try which Rhyse Martin converted.

Tigers’ first try was also out of the blue, on 22 minutes. It was a fine score, Westerman, Richardson and Evalds moving the ball wide to Faraimo, whose low kick was touched down by his centre Jake Mamo.

Richardson added the extras from the touchline. Soon afterwards, Martin made a clean break, but there was no support and Evalds stood his ground to make the tackle.

Thirteen minutes before the interval, O’Connor had a go from acting-half and reacted as if he had scored, but referee Ben Thaler said ‘no try’ and the video referee agreed the Leeds man had been held up in Evalds’ tackle,

Rhinos turned down two points from a penalty in front of Tigers’ posts, but it didn’t pay off. James Donaldson’s pass was intercepted by Richardson and he slipped the ball to Mamo, but the centre dropped it.

Tigers, though, snatched the lead two minutes before the break with a soft - and unconverted - try, Faraimo going over from acting-half after Ash Handley had tackled Mamo just short.

Handley, who captained Leeds in the absence of Kruise Leeming, scored his 100th try for the club six minutes into the second half, after Sezer and Liam Sutcliffe kept the ball moving on the last.

Martin, who had been held up over the line by Liam Watts, Mamo and Alex Mellor just before that, added the extras.

Rhinos failed to score after tapping another kickable penalty, but increased their lead on 53 minutes through Sezer who ran a good line on to Brad Dwyer’s pass and held off three defenders to touch down for a try which Martin improved.

Leeds ran in a lovely fourth try just before the hour. Dywer and Myler worked the ball to Sutcliffe who made a break and then kicked for Myler to gather and touch down.

Martin, surprisingly, hit a post with what was a fairly straight-forward conversion attempt, but Rhinos scored again just three minutes later, through James Bentley from Smith’s pass

With 11 minutes left Rhinos grabbed their sixth try. Sezer was again involved, his final pass finding Sutcliffe who dummied towards Handley and took Mamo over the line with him for a try which Martin improved from wide out.

Cas got the ball back from a short kick-off and scored on their first attack of the half, nine minutes from time, through Faraimo, who got on the end of some nice passing by Joe Westerman, Richardson, Evalds and Mamo.

Richardson’s kick bounced away off a post.

Moments later, Mamo knocked on trying to intercept from Sezer and following the scrum, Dwyer’s pass was intercepted by Tigers’ stand-in stand-off Greg Eden, but Handley ran him down.

Sezer was yellow carded soon afterwards and Mahe Fonua crossed in the subsequent set, Richardson’s second goal completing the scoring.