© SportingLife.com 2003
Widnes gave their Tetley's Super League top six hopes a boost with a hard-earned victory over play-off rivals Castleford but were flattered by the final scoreline.
Plucky Cas led 16-12 until 16 minutes from time when the Vikings ran in three tries against a tiring defence.
Widnes went ahead midway through the first half with a penalty from Jules O'Neill but Cas grabbed the opening try when Australian scrum-half Mitch Healey supported an Andy Johnson break to go over and tag on the conversion himself.
Healey struck a penalty in 29th minute to increase the lead to 8-2 before Widnes notched their first touchdown on the half hour when Paul Devlin took Stuart Spruce's pass after a Ryan Sheridan 'bomb'.
Healey increased the lead to 10-6 with his second penalty early in the second half before Daniel Frame crashed over for Widnes, with O'Neill landing the conversion to nose his side ahead 12-10
Then Healey, who scored all Castleford's points, collected Ryan Hudson's neat kick to go over and boot the conversion to restore a 16-12 lead.
Dale Fritz, the Castleford forward and Widnes prop O'Neill, were sinbinned after a melee, with Healey having spent 10 minutes in the cooler in the first half for an infringement at the play-the-ball.
It all turned sour for Cas when Adam Hughes strode clear to make it 18-16 before Devlin bagged his second try.
An O'Neill drop goal gave Widnes a seven-point cushion at 23-16 before Dan Potter wrapped up an impressive night's work with the final touchdown in the last minute.
© SportingLife.com 2003
Warrington improved their Tetley's Super League play-off hopes with a victory over top-six rivals Castleford at The Jungle.
The Wolves bounced back from conceding an early try to lead 14-4 at the break and shot further ahead early in the second half when substitute Sid Domic scored.
Castleford hauled themselves back by reducing the deficit to 22-16 before Warrington made the game safe with a late try from winger Brent Grose and a drop goal by Nathan Wood.
The Tigers made a dream start when Mitch Healey's perfectly-judged kick to the corner set up a fourth-minute touchdown for winger Paul Mellor.
Warrington missed a golden chance to hit back three minutes later when Graham Appo burst clear but Dean Gaskell was unable to take his pass with the line open.
The Wolves then had a let-off when Castleford's Mike Smith went over but the effort was disallowed for a forward pass from Healey.
Appo opened Warrington's account with a 17th-minute penalty after Healey was penalised for a high tackle.
Appo levelled the scores eight minutes later with his second goal after the home side were caught offside.
Castleford's Kiwi forward Smith had a second touchdown ruled out before the Wolves snatched the lead with two tries in three minutes shortly before the break.
Paul Wood capitalised on Appo's kick to score before Nathan Wood went in after good passing by Appo and Mike Wainwright.
Appo's third goal gave Warrington a 10-point advantage at the interval and they quickly increased their lead in the second half.
Darren Burns' kick caught out Castleford's defence and Domic pounced for a try.
Another goal from Appo made it 20-4 before the Tigers staged a fightback.
Wayne Godwin sent in Andy Johnson before Godwin scored himself from Tom Saxton's pass and Healey landed his second goal.
But Warrington finished the game on top when Gary Hulse and Jerome Guisset linked to send in Grose and Appo added his sixth goal from eight attempts.
Nathan Wood's 76th-minute drop goal put the icing on the cake.
© SportingLife.com 2003
Injury-ravaged St Helens made it nine Tetley's Super League wins in a row with a hard-earned victory over the Castleford Tigers at Knowsley Road.
Despite having 10 regulars out through injury and having three teenage debutants on the bench they were still too strong for the faltering Tigers.
Castleford have now won just two of their last 11 matches and their slim play-off hopes look to be fading fast.
The Tigers got off to a good start when Mitch Healey's excellent pass allowed Tom Saxton to touch down after just eight minutes and Healey converted to make it 6-2 following an early Sean Long penalty for the home side.
Saints regained the lead when they took full advantage of a Saxton knock-on deep inside his own half.
The home side took full advantage of the position when John Stankevitch crossed for Saints' first try of the night and Long again goaled.
Twelve minutes before half-time Paul Newlove made a try-scoring return after injury when he dived over and Long's third goal gave his side a 14-6 half-time advantage.
Castleford's hopes were not helped when they had Wayne Bartrim sin-binned at the end of the first half.
They fell further behind midway through the second half when Jason Hooper was first to react to a loose ball to score and Long kicked a superb touchline conversion to stretch the lead to 20-6.
Winger Waine Pryce gave the visitors hope of a comeback when he sprinted 80 metres for a superb solo try to cut the deficit to just 10 points with 15 minutes still remaining.
But despite some anxious moments Saints made sure of victory when Ade Gardner sprinted 60 metres to touch down in the corner in the final minute and Long kicked his fifth goal from five attempts to seal the win.
By Ian Laybourn, PA Sport
Castleford turned the formbook on its head to further dent Leeds' title hopes and ruin the Super League debut of Liam Botham.
The injury-hit Tigers belied the woeful form that sent them tumbling down the table with a superb display that ended their four-match losing run and kept alive their outside play-off hopes.
Leeds have now picked up just one point from their last three matches and trail Bradford by three points with just three games left of the regular season.
Castleford, forced to field a side that included eight players aged 22 or under, raced into a 24-0 lead and then defended heroically as the Rhinos launched their fightback.
Botham, watched by his famous cricketing father Ian, was handed his rugby league baptism on the Leeds left wing because of injuries to Chris McKenna and Gary Connolly but it was an inauspicious beginning as Castleford dominated from the start.
It was 10 minutes before the former Newcastle and England A rugby union man had his first touch of the ball and by then Leeds had already conceded the first of five first-half tries.
Castleford shrugged off the absence of nine regulars through injury and illness and a disastrous run to play some magnificent rugby that had the title-chasers on the back foot throughout the first half.
Architect of a stunning display was veteran scrum-half Mitch Healey, who got on the end of Ryan Hudson's grubber kick to score the first try and helped create two others.
The former Cronulla Sharks ace, who plans to retire at the end of the season, also kicked two conversion but missed with four others to leave the visitors a way back into the game.
But Leeds could do little right and the first half represented a personal nightmare for right winger Mark Calderwood.
He made a meal of Healey's bomb to hand his opposite number Darren Rogers a try and then failed to make the most of a one-on-one against Michael Eagar in Leeds' best chance of the half.
Calderwood, badly in need of a confidence boost, eventually added to his 22 tries when he squeezed over in injury time but the rampant Tigers had amassed a big lead by then.
Impressive prop Andy Lynch, an outside chance for the Ashes series, boosted his Great Britain prospects by charging through for a 23rd-minute touchdown and Dale Fritz and Francis Maloney also breached a shell-shocked Leeds defence.
The introduction from the bench of Rob Burrow and Willie Poching in the second quarter had livened up the Rhinos attack and they were prominent as the visitors clawed their way back into the match.
Castleford were forced to defend back-to-back sets of six tackles near their own line and the pressure finally told when centre Keith Senior took Andrew Dunemann's accurate pass to glide through a gap in the defence.
Then stand-off Danny McGuire, last-gasp hero of the Rhinos' 24-24 draw with Wigan a week earlier, dummied his way over for a third try and skipper Kevin Sinfield landed his second conversion to make it 24-16.
But Eagar steadied frayed nerves by taking another of Healey's astute passes to cross out wide for a sixth Tigers try that stemmed the Leeds onslaught.
Healey was wide with a drop goal attempt before second rower Matt Adamson forced his way over for Leeds' fourth try but it was too little, too late for the faltering title chasers.
© SportingLife.com 2003
Castleford stayed in the chase for the Tetley's Super League play-offs by edging out Huddersfield whose defeat spelled the end of their top six hopes.
The Giants were still in contention at only 16-12 behind when prop Jim Gannon was sent off in the 69th minute for a high tackle on Castleford's Nathan Sykes.
The Tigers capitalised by wrapping up their third win over Huddersfield this season when Ryan Hudson sent Michael Eagar over four minutes later and young substitute Craig Huby kicked his third goal.
Huddersfield's Eorl Crabtree went in two minutes from time and Jamie Bloem added his third goal but it came too late.
Mitch Healey put Castleford ahead with a fourth minute penalty after Francis Maloney was flattened by Darren Fleary after kicking ahead.
Bloem levelled matters with a goal three minutes later after the Tigers were penalised for failing to play the ball correctly.
Bloem was on target again in the 12th minute to put the Giants ahead after Darren Turner had the ball stolen in a tackle under Castleford's posts.
The Tigers went close when winger Waine Pryce narrowly failed to get to Ryan Hudson's kick before the ball went dead.
Castleford got the opening try in the 25th minute when Healey's clever kick resulted in Damian Gibson scoring, and Healey added his second goal.
Huddersfield struck back four minutes later when Steve McNamara's cross-field kick resulted in Ben Roarty putting Hefin O'Hare over.
McNamara kicked penalty goals after 34 and 39 minutes to give the Giants a 12-8 interval lead.
Castleford were on level terms early in the second half when Pryce went in at the corner for the first of his two tries after good work by Hudson, Healey and Gibson.
The Giants, who lost Stanley Gene with a head injury, fell behind in the 61st minute after an awful blunder by Marcus St Hilaire.
Hilaire made a mess of dealing with Healey's kick behind his own line and Pryce was on hand to grab his second try.
Gannon's dismissal then signalled the end for Huddersfield who have not beaten Castleford for five years.