Saints v Castleford Tigers

Saints lost their second pre-season friendly 22-6 at the hands of Castleford.

Adam Swift scored the home side’s only try five minutes from time after a superb kick from Danny Richardson.

But Keiron Cunningham admitted they were second best with errors costing them dear.

Castleford got off to the best possible start when on their very first set Saints failed to deal with a high kick and Rangi Chase showed great feet to dance through the defence.

Richardson attempted a couple of testing kicks to get the home side back into it and on 20 minutes Joe Greenwood was held up over the line and then adjudged to be just short.

But five minutes later Castleford increased the lead.

Saints were called for interference in the tackle and from the tap Luke Gale popped it up for Zak Hardaker to ghost through.

The home side went close in the final stages – Adam Walker almost barging his way over – but Cas hung on and retained their 10-0 advantage.

Saints began the second half much like the first by conceding early.

After giving away a penalty and being forced to drop out Cas loaded the far side and Jesse Sene-Lefao busted through the defence.

Saints had two sets on Cas’ line 55 minutes in but had to drop out once more a couple of minutes later.

And Grant Millington scored after Saints were penalised for interference on Rangi Chase.

Luke Douglas offloaded to send Jack Ashworth away in the final ten minutes but it took until the 75th for Saints to finally get over the line.

A 40:20 attempt from Richardson forced Joel Monaghan to tap the ball back inside off the touchline – only for Adam Swift to scoop it up and go under the posts.

Mark Percival tagging on the extras to end the afternoon’s scoring.

Match Summary:

Saints:

Tries: Swift

Goals: Percival (1 from 1)

Tigers:

Tries: Chase, Hardaker, Sene-Lefao, Millington

Goals: Gale (3 from 4)

Penalties:

Saints: 8

Tigers: 7

HT: 0-10

FT: 6-22

REF: J Child

ATT: 2,284

Teams:

Saints:

1. Jonny Lomax; 2. Tommy Makinson, 22. Matty Fleming, 4. Mark Percival, 5. Adam Swift; 24. Danny Richardson, 6. Theo Fages; 14. Luke Douglas, 9. James Roby, 8. Alex Walmsley, 11. Joe Greenwood, 18. Dominique Peyroux, 12. Jon Wilkin.

Subs: 10. Kyle Amor, 15. Adam Walker, 16. Luke Thompson, 17. Tommy Lee, 20. Morgan Knowles, 23. Jack Ashworth, 28. Regan Grace, 30. Jonah Cunningham.

Tigers:

1. Zak Hardaker; 2. Greg Minikin, 3. Jake Webster, 4. Michael Shenton, 5. Greg Eden; 6. Rangi Chase, 7. Luke Gale; 8. Andy Lynch, 9. Paul McShane, 19. Gadwin Springer, 15. Jesse Sene-Lefao, 12. Mike McMeeken, 14. Nathan Massey.

Subs: 10. Grant Millington, 16. Luke Million, 17. Junior Moors, 18. Matt Cook, 21. Joel Monaghan, 23. Kieran Gill.