Saints v Castleford Tigers

The U19s brought their mini slump to an end and in turn kept up the pressure at the top of the table by doing the double over the Tigers at the Totally Wicked on a humid Saturday afternoon.

The Saints started in sparkling fashion scoring after only four minutes. Sean Croston had been held up on the right but two tackles later the ball found its way to the left for Jack Welsby to put Chris Follin through to the line, writes Graham Henthorne.

By the time Tom Nisbet scored the Saints second try after a quarter of an hour, taking a Follin pass to stride to the left corner, the game could and should have been done and dusted.

Three clear try scoring chances were put down on the next three possessions to give the beleaguered Tigers some belief.

The set after the initial try Callum Hazzard showed his skill to put Joe Sharratt away. The much improved loose forward took it to the full back but with nothing on did the right thing in taking the tackle. From the play the ball Jake Wingfield and Croston passed the ball out to the wing only to see John Hutchings put a foot in touch in the act of scoring.

In successive sets after this firstly Follin passed to the tigers within sight of the line and then Josh Simm lost the ball over the line in the act of scoring.

Welsby increased the lead on quarter time running free down the left after another quick play the ball from Sharratt. He sprinted 40 metres to the full back and despite the easier decision being to pass inside to Nisbet screaming up on the inside, he dummied the fullback before strolling under the posts.

Josh Simm showed his handling skills as he picked up a spilled last tackle bomb one handed at full pace beating the despairing cover to score.

The Saints dominance, which should already have numbered more than forty points, should have been stretched even further on the stroke of half time.

Hazzard’s pass put Jorge Lewtas on a forty metre break and the big prop found Ryan Horne in support on the inside. Unfortunately the temptation to score now was too much and instead of taking the tackle the scrum half forced it inside only to be intercepted.

In the same way that the first twenty minutes of the first half were great those after the break were terrible with the Saints knocking on in the first set and then conceding down the Tigers left edge.

As a result of this and some poor handling they then spent the next 15 minutes desperately hanging on to the Tigers deep in their own 20 metre area, at one point defending six consecutive sets.

Thankfully the Tigers relieved the pressure by knocking on and four tackles later Sean Croston used Hutchings on his outside to dummy his way over the line.

From the kick off drives down the left hand side from Nisbett and Simm got the Saints out of their own half and on the fifth Welsby brought Matty Foster back on a great inside line to run in from 30 metres out.

With the sting finally gone from the visitors the Saints scored their seventh and final try with ten minutes to go as John Hutchings finished off a Foster and Hazzard break diving over in the right corner.

Whilst at the beginning of the day Derek Traynor and the rest of the coaching staff would have taken a win by this score, the dominant start and chances created in the first twenty minutes means that the final score and performance were quite disappointing.

But second place on the ladder means the Saints are still very much in the mix for the end of season jamboree.

Match Summary:

Saints U19s:
Tries: Chris Follin (4), Tom Nisbett (15), Jack Welsby (21), Josh Simm (32), Sean Croston (61), Matty Foster (65), John Hutchings (71).
Goals: Callum Hazzard 3 from 5, Josh Simm 1 from 1, Jack Welsby 0 from 1.

Castleford U19s:
Tries: Tom Hall (43).
Goals: Harry Williams 1 from1.

Half Time: 22-0
Full Time: 36-6

Teams:

Saints:
1. Tom Nisbet; 5. John Hutchings, 20. Sean Croston, 4. Josh Simm, 22. Kevin Brown; 6. Jack Welsby, 7. Ryan Horne; 8. Alex Eckley, 9. Jake Wingfield, 10. Callum Hazzard, 11. Chris Follin, 12. Sam Royle, 13. Joe Sharratt.
Subs: 14. Paul Nash, 15. Matty Foster, 16. Jorge Lewtas, 17. Kye Siyani.

Castleford:
1. Calum Turner; 2. Kian Morgan, 3. Tom Hall, 4. Robbie Storey, 5. Lewis Carr; 6. Jake Sweeting, 7. Harry Williams; 8. James Beckett, 9. Reiss Butterworth, 10. Sam Dore, 11. Joe Summers, 12. Lewis Peachey, 13. Jacques O’Neill.
Subs: 14. Bradley Jinks, 15. Josef Fella, 16. Ben Dobson, 17. Jack Kay.