Wins for Castleford Tigers and Wakefield Trinity women

Tigers’ 40-16 victory was their first win over Women’s Super League champions Bradford Bulls, who beat them three times last year.

Lacey Owen opened the scoring and Grace Field and Tara Stanley also touched down in the opening 15 minutes.

Kelsey Gentles added to Tigers’ tally before the interval and Tamsin Renouf, Georgie Hetherington and Grace crossed in the second half.

Stanley (4) and Katie Hepworth (2) added goals.

Heather Macdonald and Jess Courtman were Bulls’ try scorers and Clare Garner kicked two goals.

Castleford coach Lindsay Anfield said: “It was certainly not a

polished performance, but a win is a win and we are delighted to have picked up the two points.”

Trinity made it three wins from three in the Women’s Championship with a 22-8 victory at Stanningley.

The hosts went ahead through a try from Rachael Baker, but Trinity - who lost powerful prop forward Anita Godfrey to a knee injury - hit back through Georgia Cutt.

Allana Walker crossed to give Stanningley an 8-4 advantage at the break, but Trinity went ahead through Yasmin’ Copeland’s conversion of a try by Amy Brinkley.

Copeland then took control, bagging a brace of tries and adding the extras to both.

Coach Wayne Hirst said: “Three wins from three is a great start to the campaign.

“Against a decent Stanningley outfit, we didn’t start the game like we spoke about and they came at us hard early on and we struggled to contain them.

“We made a lot of unforced errors and we put pressure on ourselves in that first half and generally couldn’t complete our sets in the right areas of the field.

“We changed a few things up at half time and stayed positive and I was pleased with the character we showed to fight back to a comfortable victory in the end.”

He added: “I’m pleased with our progress so far in the Women’s Championship , but there’s still improvement in us.

“We’re taking each game as it comes and if need be grinding out wins, but I’m hoping with each game we’re developing as individuals but more importantly as the ladies get more game time together, as a team.”

Former Wakefield, St Helens and Huddersfield star Keith Mason stepped in to take a training session ahead of Trinity’s next game, against Leigh Miners at Sharlston Rovers on May 13.