Tigers Michael Platt, Tim Robinson, Damien Reid, Jon Hepworth, Michael Shenton, Andy Kain, Paul Handforth, Adam Watene, Andrew Henderson, Frank Watene, Tommy Haughey, Steve Crouch, Aaron Smith SUBS Shaun Lunt, Jordan James, Byron Smith, Alex Rowe
Doncaster Craig Horne, Dean Colton, Craig Farrell, Dale Cardoza, Craig Miles, Graham Holroyd, Latham Tawhai, Gareth Handford, Craig Cook, Martin Ostler, Andy Hay, Peter Green, Martin Moana SUBS Ben Cockayne, Craig Lawton, Dean O'Loughlin, Lee Harland
Scoring went like this (Cas:Dragons)
0:4, 6:4, 6:10, 12:10 HT, 16:10, 17:10, 23:10, 29:10
Crowd was 3371 and I guessed at around 3000 having viewed how many were there - Taking my near accurate guess as correct, I also estimate that there were around 2000+ Cas fans in the ground - We certainly outnumbered the home crowd.
A great victory to get The Tigers off and running. Here is a rundown of what I saw with my own eyes and also my random thoughts (god help us!!!)
Cas are playing towards the Doncaster Dome/Asda end in the first half - Cas Fans filling area behind the sticks and scattered around in large numbers everywhere else (only 3 sides were open) the other end was closed.
Tigers knock on twice in first 2 sets
2 Minutes gone and Doncaster get the first try with Craig Miles - Dragons passed ball to the left on our 20 metre line and a little kick through meant that Miles was easily able to gather and score in the corner.
5 mins gone and a bit better for Cas - Dragons have to drop out from under the sticks but Tigers unable to capitalise. 9 minutes passed and Cas gain yet another drop out BUT, 2 more knock ons scupper their attempts to score - Very scrappy so far - Pitch looks slightly wet but not enough to cause all these errors.
12 mins and 15 mins, 2 more Cas knock ons - 6 already - What the £$%&*
17 Mins and the Dragons get over our line but knock on trying to get the ball down - Phew!!!
20 mins gone and Reid breaks down the left wing but is tackled in touch on the halfway line.
A minute later Cas finally score - A Handforth burst and sidestep followed by a looping pass to his left finds Reid who is tackled just as he manages to put the ball over the line for 4 points - At our end, Mr Puurfect manages to fall over the hoardings to plenty of laughs!!! A good kick from Andy Kain sees us take the lead (the ball was halfway in from the touchline on the left-hand side)
From the following kick-off, we make a mistake and let the ball bounce infield and then go through the endzone for a dropout - Luckily the Dragons are unable to score.
25 gone and Handforth gives a great kick to the left hand corner and finds touch - Excellent and we are starting to play a little better now.
27 Mins and I spoke too soon - Doncaster get their 2nd try of the match - Strange one this - Doncaster nearly knock on but use this to their advantage, Cas players stop after the Dragons player walks with ball giving look of having dropped it - Ref saw that he hadn't and Holroyd came storming through for a short pass to go over at the side of the sticks - Kick was good for a 10:6 lead to the Dragons. Cas need to keep up their concentration and play to the whistle - They were caught off guard here.
Lee Harland now on the field to a chorus of boos from every Tigers fan in the ground (well, the vast majority of them anyway)
3 minutes later and The Tigers regain the advantage - 4 drives up the field with straight running set us up with excellent field position and 2 quick passes to the left made a gap for Tommy Haughey to flop over the line in the same place that we scored the first one - Kain is good with the kick again for a 12:10 lead and one that we were not to surrender again.
Once again, straight from the kick off we messed up - Kick went into touch at our 20 metre line after bouncing on the floor and 3 of our players ended up watching it go out. Once again, Donny couldn't make it count and came up empty.
The linesman got into the action on 35 mins coming on to award Cas a penalty for an incident that I have absolutely no idea about - I didn't see anything untoward but it was quite hard to see at the far end of the field.
36 Mins and a mini fight breaks out between the players - Obviously something has gone on that I have missed.
38 mins and Andy Kain is laid out after running straight into 3 Doncaster tacklers - Nothing untoward about the tackles but he looked hurt - After a few minutes, the stretcher was removed from the field he was able to walk away under his own steam without too much damage.
Half time and a close game - There have been 9 or 10 knock ons from Cas and Doncaster have been doing the same - This has kept the score close but we look more dangerous than the Dragons. We need to show more sense in the 2nd half and take better options - If we can complete sets and not knock on, we should come out on top.
2nd Half and we get off to a much better start completing our first 4 sets of 6 gaining a drop out from Donny in the process on 45 mins.
on 49, it is all Cas, Cas, Cas and we force another dropout. Doncaster look rattled and for some reason are pushing Hepworth around.
We are camped in their half and although we have 18 straight plays at them, we are unable to break through their strong defence.
52 mins gone and we are now struggling to break through their first line of defence - We still look strong though, just struggling to make breaks of any kind but much better than in the first half.
58 mins and The Tigers get a penalty for offside after we deliberately ran at their offside player - Good tactics - From the resulting kick, Kain misses so it remains 12:10 and still no room for error.
62 mins and more Cas pressure - Yet another drop out from Donny - 64 mins we swing the ball out wide right for a Shenton Try right on the corner flag - To me, it looked like he was in touch but the linesman was right on the spot - Thanks lineman :-)) We may have been a bit fortunate here but I'll still take the 4 points.
After 71, Cas gain a 7 point advantage with a drop goal from Andy Kain after a great move down the left hand side following on from a Doncaster high bomb that we recovered and immediately broke away from.
Straight from the kick off Cas have a high tackle administered - Should have been a straight red it was that bad, but the ref seems oblivious to this fact and just awards a penalty to The Tigers. The ref bottled it big time here.
74 mins gone and it's still all Cas - Jordan James manages to score a try from the resulting penalty set of 6 - Ball passed out to the right with just enough gap for James to score at speed and a happy celebration by the players followed.
Doncaster's heads have now dropped.
76 mins and another try, this time to Hepworth on the left hand side. The easy inside ball from Robinson on the wing was given with a Cas 2 on 1 after some nice play from Cas who are now starting to finally break tackles.
80 minutes and not quite full time - Another James try is wiped off the board from a kick through and touch down - I thought it was for a knock on (which I disagreed with) but since I've read comments since I got home, it looks like it was for offside (which people also seem to disagree with!!!) Henderson had made a great 50 yard run to set up this non-try
Final hooter sounds for a great start to the season proper - Doncaster will be a hard nut for any team to crack at home and I was surprised at just how good their tackling was throughout the game.
We were really good in the 2nd half and when we play like that, it will be very, very hard for teams to beat us.
Tries: James 6min, Haughey
15min, Platt 28min, Pryce 39min, 68min, Hepworth 49min, Shenton 60min, 78min,
Conversions: Davis 15min, 68min
Referee: Gareth Hewer,
Attendance: 4776
Tigers Michael Platt, Waine Pryce, Damien Reid,
Jon Hepworth, Michael Shenton, Brad Davis, Andrew Henderson, Adam Watene , Aaron
Smith , Byron Smith , Tommy Haughey, Jordan James, Steve Crouch
SUBS Dominic Brambani, Craig Huby, Leigh Cooke, Shaun Lunt
Rochdale Chris Giles, Andrew Saywell, Mark McCully, Richard Varkulis, Chris Campbell, Radney Bowker, Bobbie Goulding, Tommy Hodgkinson, David McConnell, Gareth Price, Andy Gorski, Lee Doran, Philip Farrell SUBS Lee Birdseye, David Newton, Dave Cunliffe, Lee Hanson
Whitehaven, Castleford and Hull KR are setting the early pace in National League One after maintaining their winning starts to the season with home victories.
Relegated Cas, in their first National League game at The Jungle, ran in eight tries as sin-binned player coach Bobbie Goulding failed to inspire Rochdale in his first appearance of the season.
Michael Shenton and Waine Pryce scored twice as the Tigers won 36-22 with further tries from Jordan James, Tommy Haughey, Michael Platt and Jonny Hepworth.
Cas were surprisingly easy winners in my opinion as I expected the game to be a lot tougher than it was. Although the score wasn't too large, dreadful goal kicking (9 misses) and 3 Hornet tries due to terrible defence made the score more respectable. In truth, Rochdale were never really in the game although they did get the best try of the game at the start of the second half due to a magnificent pass (from Goulding???) which missed out 4 or 5 men for a 2 on 1 down the left hand wing.
Having mentioned Goulding, as always, even though he was making his first start of the season, he couldn't keep his mouth shut and spent 10 minutes in the sin bin for back chatting the referee and then went and kicked the dug out on his way to the bench, just like the big baby I've always found him to be - Get the feeling I've never liked him LOL :-)
Plus points today were Waine Pryce - I thought he had a great game and in the past couple of seasons I've been one of his biggest knockers. This season his performances have been much better, he looks more composed, confident and I don't feel like he will make a mistake every time he gets the ball. Credit where credit is due, he is so far proving all his doubters wrong and I'm glad to see this.
His first try of the game was a bit of a strange one - From where I was standing, Cas knocked on, A Rochdale player kicked the ball on (he certainly played at it, picked it up by diving on it and then it came loose - The ref seemed to have played advantage and Pryce picked up the ball and ran 50 metres for a try unopposed. I suppose this could have gone either way. What was a disgrace was the Hornets player who though it clever to go in late with both knees after the try had been scored and the referee who failed to do anything about it.
Henderson had a very strong game playing away from his usual hooker role and I thought that Brad Davis also had a decent enough game - After last weeks reports, I was expecting far worse so maybe he just had an off day or was still regaining match form - Either way, he directed the game well today.
Our pack looked strong and ran hard all afternoon.
Downsides of the game for me were :
1. Goal kicking - As I've said for most of the season, we are very poor in this area - People keep saying we have 3 or 4 kickers but missing 9 in one game isn't acceptable - It can (and will before the season ends) lose us a game or two unless things improve.
2. Our defence was very poor on a few occasions when defending on our own goal line - I accept that it is very difficult to defend when you are stuck back there but it looked like a couple of individual errors/mental blocks that gave Rochdale a couple of late scores which brought them back into the game.
As I've said, the above 2 points really didn't matter in the end but would Rochdale still have been putting in as much effort had they been 42:10 down rather than 32:10 (with all the missed kicks) and due to their 2 converted tries, this brought the deficit back to 32:22 and they had everything to play for again. We could have and should have killed the game off much earlier.
Something for David Woods to work on with the players anyway.
After the couple of paragraphs above I would forgive you for thinking that I was disappointed today. Far from it. I thought that in the main we were excellent and having seen how close/strange some of the other results have been, it is encouraging to see the team with 2 wins out of 2 and in a very good position already with the next 2 games coming up which ***should*** be a walk in the park (shouldn't have said that should I!!!) After that, we have a 3 week break before our difficult fixtures start to come upon us. At that point in time, we will start to see where we actually are.
From the players we had out and the performances of their replacements today, things are looking good for the club and as I've said from the word go this season, there is no reason why we shouldn't be able to gain promotion back into Superleague at the first attempt with the good players that we have got.
6 min - Try, Jordan James,
(Castleford)
9 min - Try, Mark McCully, (Rochdale)
15 min - Try, Tommy Haughey, (Castleford)
15 min - Goal, Brad Davis, (Castleford)
20 min - Substitution, Cunliffe on for Price, (Rochdale)
25 min - Substitution, Huby on for B Smith, (Castleford)
26 min - Substitution, Newton on for Hodgkinson, (Rochdale)
28 min - Try, Michael Platt, (Castleford)
39 min - Try, Waine Pryce, (Castleford)
41 min - Try, Andrew Saywell, (Rochdale)
41 min - Goal, Mark McCully, (Rochdale)
42 min - Substitution, Cooke on for Watene, (Castleford)
49 min - Substitution, Lunt on for A Smith, (Castleford)
49 min - Try, Jon Hepworth, (Castleford)
50 min - Substitution, Hanson on for Newton, (Rochdale)
60 min - Try, Michael Shenton, (Castleford)
68 min - Try, Waine Pryce, (Castleford)
68 min - Goal, Brad Davis, (Castleford)
70 min - Substitution, Brambani on for Crouch, (Castleford)
70 min - Substitution, Birdseye on for Gorski, (Rochdale)
73 min - Try, Philip Farrell, (Rochdale)
73 min - Goal, Mark McCully, (Rochdale)
74 min - Try, Mark McCully, (Rochdale)
74 min - Goal, Mark McCully, (Rochdale)
78 min - Try, Michael Shenton, (Castleford)
Tries: Davis 9min, 19min, Kain
47min, Pryce 24min, 76min, Shenton 37min,
Conversions: Kain 9min, 19min, 37min, 47min
Attendance: 2054
Referee: Michael Dawber (Wigan)
Tigers
Michael Platt, Waine Pryce, Damien Reid, Jon Hepworth, Michael Shenton,
Andy Kain, Brad Davis, Adam Watene, Andrew Henderson, Byron Smith, Tommy
Haughey, Steve Crouch, Aaron Smith
SUBS Tim Robinson, Jordan James, Alex Rowe, Craig Huby
Oldham
Gavin Dodd, Andy Gorey, Damian Munroe, Jonathon Goddard, Nick Johnson,
Marty Turner, Carlos Mataora, Ricky Bibey, Gareth Barber, J Wilson, Simon
Houghton, Mark Roberts, John Hough
SUBS James Kirkland, Simon Svabic, Ian Hodson, David Tootill
Action:
1 min - Try, Nick Johnson, (Oldham)
9 min - Try, Brad Davis, (Castleford)
9 min - Goal, Andy Kain, (Castleford)
15 min - Goal, Marty Turner, (Oldham)
19 min - Try, Brad Davis, (Castleford)
19 min - Goal, Andy Kain, (Castleford)
22 min - Try, J Wilson, (Oldham)
22 min - Goal, Marty Turner, (Oldham)
24 min - Try, Waine Pryce, (Castleford)
30 min - Goal, Marty Turner, (Oldham)
37 min - Try, Michael Shenton, (Castleford)
37 min - Goal, Andy Kain, (Castleford)
47 min - Try, Andy Kain, (Castleford)
47 min - Goal, Andy Kain, (Castleford)
55 min - Try, Gavin Dodd, (Oldham)
55 min - Goal, Gareth Barber, (Oldham)
76 min - Try, Waine Pryce, (Castleford)
Tries: Reid 10min, Haughey 18min,
28min, Watene 61min, Pryce 66min, 71min, Davis 80min
Conversions: Kain 18min, 28min,61min, 80min
Referee: Peter Taberner (Wigan)
Attendance: 1816
Tigers
Michael Platt, Waine Pryce, Damien Reid, Jon Hepworth, Michael Shenton, Andy
Kain, Brad Davis, Adam Watene, Andrew Henderson, Byron Smith, Tommy Haughey,
Steve Crouch, Aaron Smith SUBS Stuart Kain,
Jordan James, Mike Knowles, Craig Huby
Barrow
Frederic Zitter, Jamie Marshall, Jason Roach, Alex Muff, James Nixon, Richard
Colley, Darren Holt, Andy Fisher, Dave Clark, Darren Fisher, Mike Whitehead,
Anthony Horton, Phil Atkinson SUBS
Chris Archer, Stuart Dancer, Joel Osborn, Paul Wilcock
Action:
10 min - Try, Damien Reid, (Castleford)
18 min - Try, Tommy Haughey, (Castleford)
18 min - Goal, Andy Kain, (Castleford)
22 min - Try, James Nixon, (Barrow)
22 min - Goal, Darren Holt, (Barrow)
28 min - Try, Tommy Haughey, (Castleford)
28 min - Goal, Andy Kain, (Castleford)
35 min - Goal, Darren Holt, (Barrow)
35 min - Try, Mike Whitehead, (Barrow)
52 min - Try, Alex Muff, (Barrow)
55 min - Try, Jamie Marshall, (Barrow)
55 min - Goal, Darren Holt, (Barrow)
61 min - Try, Adam Watene, (Castleford)
61 min - Goal, Andy Kain, (Castleford)
66 min - Try, Waine Pryce, (Castleford)
71 min - Try, Waine Pryce, (Castleford)
80 min - Try, Brad Davis, (Castleford)
80 min - Goal, Andy Kain, (Castleford)
Tries: Shenton 17min, Davis 23min,
38min, Huby 56min, Kain 35min, Watene 66min,
Conversions: Huby 35min, 38min, 56min, Kain 66min
Referee: John King
Attendance: 8078
Tigers Jon
Hepworth, Waine Pryce, Damien Reid, Deon Bird , Michael Shenton, Andy Kain,
Andrew Henderson, Adam Watene, Aaron Smith , Byron Smith , Tommy Haughey, Steve
Crouch , Richard Fletcher SUBS Brad Davis,
Craig Huby, Jordan James, Paul Handforth
Hull K R Leroy Rivett, Jon Steel, Paul Parker, Kane Epati , Byron Ford, Paul Mansson, James Webster, Neil Harmon , Paul Pickering, David Tangata-Toa ), Andy Raleigh, Micheal Smith, Mark Blanchard SUBS Andrew Ellis, James Garmston, Jamie Bovill, Makali Aizue
Action:
6 min - Try, Paul Mansson, (Hull K R)
8 min - Substitution, Davis on for Bird, (Castleford)
15 min - Substitution, Bovill on for Harmon, (Hull K R)
17 min - Try, Michael Shenton, (Castleford)
23 min - Try, Brad Davis, (Castleford)
25 min - Substitution, Huby on for B Smith, (Castleford)
25 min - Substitution, Garmston on for Blanchard, (Hull K R)
25 min - Substitution, Handforth on for A Smith, (Castleford)
25 min - Substitution, Ellis on for Epati, (Hull K R)
29 min - Substitution, Aizue on for Tangata-Toa, (Hull K R)
30 min - Try, Andy Raleigh, (Hull K R)
30 min - Goal, Jon Steel, (Hull K R)
32 min - Substitution, James on for Crouch, (Castleford)
35 min - Goal, Craig Huby, (Castleford)
35 min - Try, Andy Kain, (Castleford)
38 min - Goal, Craig Huby, (Castleford)
38 min - Try, Brad Davis, (Castleford)
40 min - Goal, Jon Steel, (Hull K R)
40 min - Try, Kane Epati, (Hull K R)
56 min - Goal, Craig Huby, (Castleford)
56 min - Try, Craig Huby, (Castleford)
65 min - Try, Kane Epati, (Hull K R)
66 min - Try, Adam Watene, (Castleford)
66 min - Goal, Andy Kain, (Castleford)
74 min - Try, Kane Epati, (Hull K R)
74 min - Goal, Jon Steel, (Hull K R)
Whitehaven and Castleford kept their 100% records intact in LHF Healthplan National League One after Sunday's fifth round of games.
While Whitehaven, top on points difference, were brutal in destroying Oldham 60-6 at Boundary Park, Castleford certainly did not have it all their own way against Hull KR, who like the Tigers came into the match with four wins from four.
A 32-26 win, however, stretched their winning record since last season's relegation from Super League.
Whitehaven scored 11 tries in their romp at Oldham, with Craig Calvert and Mick Nanyn snagging two apiece and Gary Broadbent, David Seeds, Joel Penny, Aaron Lester, Carl Sice, Howard Hill and Steven Kirkbride also touching down.
Castleford were inspired by veteran half-back Brad Davis at the Jungle as they prevailed against the visitors from along the M62.
Hull KR made it difficult for the home side as centre Cane Epati went over for a hat-trick of tries, but Castleford came out on top thanks to two Davis touchdowns and further scores from Craig Huby, Michael Shenton, Andy Cain and Adam Watene.
With Hull KR remaining third, Rochdale also held on to fourth in the embryonic stages of the season after a 30-30 draw at Featherstone.
Halifax leapt two places to fifth after beating Barrow 48-26, while Doncaster made a similar jump in rising to sixth with a 35-28 conquest of Batley, Ben Cockayne landing three tries for the Dragons.
Tigers - Michael Platt, Waine Pryce, Deon Bird, Jon Hepworth, Michael Shenton, Andy Kain, Brad Davis, Adam Watene, Andrew Henderson, Richard Fletcher, Tommy Haughey, Craig Huby, Steve Crouch SUBS Andy Bailey, Paul Handforth, Byron Smith, Jordan James
Halifax - Damian Gibson, James Haley, James Bunyan, Anthony Blackwood, Rikki Sheriffe, Wayne Corcoran, Patrick Weisner, Andy Hobson, Ben Fisher, Jason Boults, David Larder, Andy Spink, Damian Ball SUBS Jamie Bloem, Chris Morley, Ryan MacDonald, Fereti Tuilagi
Action:
1 min - Try, Deon Bird, (Castleford)
1 min - Goal, Craig Huby, (Castleford)
9 min - Try, Andrew Henderson, (Castleford)
9 min - Goal, Craig Huby, (Castleford)
13 min - Try, Michael Shenton, (Castleford)
21 min - Try, Tommy Haughey, (Castleford)
21 min - Goal, Craig Huby, (Castleford)
25 min - Try, Michael Shenton, (Castleford)
25 min - Goal, Andy Kain, (Castleford)
28 min - Try, Damian Ball, (Halifax)
28 min - Goal, Patrick Weisner, (Halifax)
34 min - Try, Waine Pryce, (Castleford)
38 min - Try, Jon Hepworth, (Castleford)
38 min - Goal, Andy Kain, (Castleford)
43 min - Try, Rikki Sheriffe, (Halifax)
43 min - Goal, Patrick Weisner, (Halifax)
51 min - Try, Waine Pryce, (Castleford)
51 min - Try, Rikki Sheriffe, (Halifax)
76 min - Goal, Craig Huby, (Castleford)
77 min - Try, Craig Huby, (Castleford)