Saints v Castleford Tigers

Saints turn on the magic at Anfield!

A ruthless magic weekend performance from Saints secured a dominant 36-16 win against the Castleford Tigers at Anfield.

First half tries from Tommy Makinson, Regan Grace, Jonny Lomax and Theo Fages were added to by second half scores from Jack Ashworth, Lachlan Coote and Kev Naiqama who put the icing on the cake. Grant Millington pulled a try back late in the first half and Chris Clarkson and Greg Eden scored two late consolations for the Tigers tries.

It was the Tigers who had the better of the opening minutes forcing back to back drop out’s, but the Saints defence stood firm and in typically ruthless fashion Saints got the opening try of the game.

A 60 metre break from Naiqama put Saints 20 metres out. On the next tackle Fages fed Coote who put Makinson in at the corner giving Saints an early 4-0 lead.

Saints extended their lead in the 16th minute after the ball was swept from right to left and Zeb Taia provided a superb offload to put Grace in to score.

Saints were in again on the very next set after a excellent carry from Alex Walmsley caused mayhem in the Tigers defence. James Roby picked the ball up from dummy half and caught the defence off guard before offloading to Lomax who scored under the posts. Coote adding the extras making it 14-0 after 19 minutes.

The scoring didn’t stop there as in the 23rd minute Saints were over again. This time Coote found Fages with a short pass and the Frenchman smashed his way over from close range extending Saints lead to 20-0 with Coote adding the extras.

The Tigers pulled a try back through Millington after he latched onto a neat kick through, before scoring under the sticks. Peter Mata’utia adding the extras.

The second half started like the first half ended with both sides exchanging sets, but unable to create any opportunities to score.

But  it didn’t take Saints long to open the scoring in the second half. After forcing a drop out, Saints extended their lead through Ashworth after he took a short ball from Jo Paulo to crash over for his first try of the season. Coote adding the extras making it Saints 26-6 Castleford with 50 minutes played.

It couldn’t have been Magic Weekend without a try from our magician Coote who latched onto yet another wonderful offload from Taia to score under the sticks. Our full back adding the extras to his own try giving Saints a 32-6 lead with 20 minutes remaining.

The scoring didn’t stop there as a flowing move on Saints right edge allowed Coote to find Lomax who put Naiqama away to score in the corner. Coote was unable to add the extras this time.

Castleford pulled back two consolation tries through Clarkson and Eden reducing the depict to 36-16 with minutes remaining, but it was too little too late as a clinical performance from Saints meant we marched on after a magic performance.

Match Summary:

St Helens: Coote; Makinson, Naiqama, Costello, Grace; Lomax, Fages; Lees, Roby, Walmsley, Peyroux, Taia, Knowles.

Interchanges: Paulo, Smith, Ashworth, Bentley.

Tries: Makinson (8), Grace (16) ,Lomax (19), Fages (23), Ashworth (47), (Coote 60), Naiqama (67).

Goals: Coote (4 from 7)

Castleford Tigers: Mata’utia, Claire, Minikin, Blair, Eden, Trueman, Aston, Watts, Mcshane, Smith, Millington, Mcmeeken, Milner.

Interchanges: Cook, Maher, Rankin, Clarkson.

Tries: Millington (32), Clarkson (73), Eden (76).

Goals: Mata’utia (1 from 1), Rankin ( 1 from 2).

Referee: Robert Hicks

HT: 20-6

FT: 36-16

ATT: 26,812