By Ian Laybourn, PA Sport Rugby League Correspondent
New boys Castleford provided some glimpses of promise on their return to the top flight but they were no match for Challenge Cup holders Hull on the opening night of engage Super League XI.
A comprehensive eight-try, 42-18 defeat emphasised the Tigers' status as relegation favourites while confirming Hull as serious title challengers.
Sid Domic scored the first try of the 2006 season on an impressive debut for Hull, while playmakers Paul Cooke and Richard Horne caused all sorts of problems for a fragile home defence.
Ex-St Helens and Widnes centre Gray Viane, one of 10 new faces for the Tigers, scored two tries and their fans among the bumper 10,188 crowd were delighted with the displays of prop Danny Sculthorpe and skipper Danny Nutley.
Former Warrington and Wakefield centre Domic, who formed a new second-row pairing for Hull with Lee Radford, took advantage of some smart passing by Paul King and Danny Brough to cut through for an eighth-minute touchdown to put Hull on their way.
The visitors were already 2-0 ahead thanks to an early Brough penalty and they extended their lead on 24 minutes when a superb break from Horne set up the position for full-back Shaun Briscoe to cross for a second try.
The Challenge Cup holders were far more organised and threatening and it was no surprise when loose forward Cooke added a third try on 32 minutes, stretching out of a last-ditch tackle to plant the ball on the line.
Castleford were full of energy and enthusiasm, as befitting the promoted side, but made too many handling errors and paid for a lack of discipline, conceding the first four penalties of a scrappy first half.
They scored their first points when substitute Richard Fletcher kicked a 19th-minute penalty and Sculthorpe caused Hull problems with his lively running and skilful offloads.
Sculthorpe also demonstrated his kicking ability to set up the first Tigers try a minute before the break, with winger Michael Shenton taking advantage of a kind bounce to send Viane over.
The score worked wonders for Castleford's confidence as they put the Hull defence under intense pressure early in the second half.
But the visitors held firm and struck back in cruel fashion, scoring twice in four minutes through their wingmen to seize control of the match.
First Domic showed his class with a beautifully-timed pass to get substitute Nathan Blacklock over with his first touch and then Cooke and Horne produced some clever handling for Great Britain international Gareth Raynor to finish off at the other corner.
Brough was wide with both conversion attempts to leave himself with a 50 per cent record but, at 26-6, Hull were coasting to a predictable victory.
Viane collected a neat kick by Ryan McGoldrick to claim his second try and second rower Richard Fa'aoso and McGoldrick also touched down as Castleford gained reward for their persistence.
But Hull finished in complete control, with centre Kirk Yeaman (2) and Peter Lupton adding further tries and Cooke kicking two conversions
New Castleford coach Tony Matterson could not hide his disappointment after watching his side crash to a 42-18 home defeat by Hull in the opening match of engage Super League XI.
The newly-promoted Tigers, who had 10 new faces on view, were never ahead and eventually conceded eight tries to an impressive Hull team who demonstrated their title credentials.
"I'm a bit disappointed, definitely," said Matterson. "Not with the effort but we were pretty poor with the ball.
"I was expecting a better result, a closer result. I thought at times we looked like getting on top but we just couldn't get over the line.
"It's going to take a while but we're going to get better, we have to get better.
"We have some guys underdone and we were playing a side who had been together quite a while and you could tell."
Gray Viane scored two of Castleford's four tries, the others coming from Ryan McGoldrick and Richard Fa'aoso, but the Tigers lost another newcomer, second-rower Matt Whitaker, with ankle ligament damage.
Matterson received words of encouragement from Hull coach John Kear, a former Castleford player and assistant coach.
"I think there were some good signs," he said. "They certainly don't look as far off the pace as Leigh did this time last year.
"Obviously they are going to get better. They had 10 new guys and that is a lot of people to integrate into their team."
Centre Kirk Yeaman scored two tries for the Challenge Cup holders, who also touched down through Shaun Briscoe, Gareth Raynor, Peter Lupton, Nathan Blacklock, Paul Cooke and debutant Sid Domic.
Kear was delighted with his side's performance and hailed the contributions of newcomers Domic and ex-Bradford back-rower Lee Radford.
"We got 80 minutes of quality back-row play from Lee Radford and Sid produced some incisive and explosive running," he said. "His work-rate was very high indeed."
By Ross Heppenstall, PA Sport
Paul Sculthorpe made his long-awaited return to action as St Helens further enhanced their burgeoning engage Super League title credentials.
The Great Britain captain had been sidelined since last August following major knee surgery which forced him to miss the autumn Tri-Nations series.
Having treaded the long, gruelling path to recovery, Sculthorpe delighted a bumper 13,528 crowd by playing a telling role as eight different players claimed crossed the line for Daniel Anderson's side.
Six of those tries came in the opening period to ensure the contest was effectively over by the interval as Saints mercilessly swept aside relegation candidates Castleford.
When talented youngster James Graham crossed the line shortly after the restart, the spectre of serious humiliation loomed large for the Tigers.
To their credit, however, Terry Matterson's side refused to surrender and claimed two tries of their own through scrum-half Andy Kain and Gray Viane to restore some pride - before Jason Hooper put the icing on the cake for Saints.
There was never any prospect of anything other than a resounding St Helens victory from the moment Jamie Lyon orchestrated a superb opening try after just three minutes.
The Australian collected Sean Long's neat offload and threw a delightful pass out wide to Ade Gardner, who scampered into the right-hand corner for his first second try of the season.
Despite the improbable angle just inches from the touchline, Lyon added the extras before Saints' vibrant approach saw them cross the line again just six minutes later.
A break from stand-off Leon Pryce, making his home debut along with Jason Cayless and Francis Meli, allowed Willie Talau to scamper over the line from 10 metres.
Lyon again converted the touchdown to make it 12-0 but Castleford - with Sculthorpe's brother Danny in their side following his close-season switch from Wigan - struggled to cope with St Helens' attacking flair.
Saints skipper Sculthorpe soon heaped further misery on his brother after playing his part in a classic move which saw the hosts claim their third try after 18 minutes.
The ball passed through seven pairs of hands in a bewildering array of inter-passing which culminated in Meli grounding in the left-hand corner.
Excellent work from Sculthorpe allowed Long to race clear to cross the line with ease for Saints' fourth try, and moments later full-back Paul Wellens touched down for his fourth try of the season.
Lyon converted to make it 26-0 before Castleford replacement Craig Huby was sin-binned for persistent infringement as the Tigers' frustrations began to get the better of them.
Saints replacement Maurie Fa'asavalu crashed over the line on the stroke of half-time for his side's sixth try before Lyon added the extras for the fourth time.
Graham crashed home under the posts shortly after the break, Lyon again converting, before Kain's neat dummy and dart over the line allowed Castleford's travelling support a smile.
The spirited Tigers continued to press and they exploited the absence of the sin-binned Keiron Cunningham after 61 minutes to cross the line again.
Kain again failed to convert and the impressive Hooper crashed over the line before Lyon claimed his sixth conversion from eight attempts.
By Wayne Gardiner, PA Sport
Castleford enjoyed their first taste of success on their return to the engage Super League, overcoming Catalans Dragons 34-28 in a gripping encounter at the Jungle.
Having suffered the pain of relegation at the end of the 2004 season, Castleford have found life hard since their return to the top flight, suffering heavy defeats at the hands of both Hull and St Helens.
However this win, their first Super League victory since September 2004, offers coach Terry Matterson hope they can avoid the relegation trapdoor this time around, although they will need to learn how to close a game out if they are to achieve that goal.
After leading 26-10 at one stage in the second half, the Tigers slipped to being 28-26 behind, before Michael Shenton's 74th-minute charge to the line finally secured the points.
Castleford enjoyed their first taste of success on their return to the engage Super League, overcoming Catalans Dragons in a gripping encounter at the Jungle.
Having suffered the pain of relegation at the end of the 2004 season, Castleford have found life hard since their return to the top flight, suffering heavy defeats at the hands of both Hull and St Helens.
However this win, their first Super League victory since September 2004, offers coach Terry Matterson hope they can avoid the relegation trapdoor this time around, although they will need to learn how to close a game out if they are to achieve that goal.
After leading 26-10 at one stage in the second half, the Tigers slipped to being 28-26 behind, before Michael Shenton's 74th-minute charge to the line finally secured the points.
Matterson's cause was helped considerably by the loss of Stacey Jones, the Catalans' playmaker, to a broken arm in their defeat at Salford last weekend.
After looking void of any creativity for almost an hour, the visitors eventually clicked into gear and produced a devastating spell of rugby, reminiscent of their opening weekend win over Wigan.
Vital to the Tigers victory were centre Gray Viane and stand-off Ryan McGoldrick.
The former has been impeccable since arriving from Widnes and increased his tally of tries this season to six with a hat-trick, whilst the latter produced an all-round performance that justified why Castleford fought so hard to secure his release from Wests Tigers.
Having been left out of the side so far this campaign, it was Waine Pryce, one of just three survivors from the class of 2004, who opened the scoring in the third minute with his first touch of the season.
His 60-metre burst to the line and Craig Huby's subsequent goal built the platform for what followed.
Catalans fought back with interest but were all too guilty of trying to force an extra pass and they were made to pay on 13 minutes when the impressive Danny Sculthorpe found Viane in space on the left-hand side, the centre making no mistake in finding the line.
Having been rejected by St Helens and relegated at Widnes, Viane is now showing his full potential.
His try, backed up by a brace after the break, leaves him second on the embryonic try scorers chart.
It appeared a walkover might be on the cards when McGoldrick fed Huby to open a 16-0 lead, more so when Mark Hughes was sent to the sin-bin for holding Ben Roarty.
Jamil Fakir made light of the full-back's absence though to barge over from close range and open the visitors' account.
Castleford hit back with an effort from Richard Fletcher, again set up by Huby, although Thomas Bosc's scramble touchdown brought the scores closer together at the interval, Castleford leading 22-10.
Viane opened the second period with his second try, grounding Sculthorpe's deft kick to the corner, although when Chris Beattie plundered a further French response following on from a sin-binning for Pryce, a fightback looked likely.
With just 20 minutes remaining, the prospect looked all the more ominous, when Renaud Guigue capitalised on Andy Kain's failure to deal with Sean Rudder's high kick to score to the left of the posts.
Luarent Frayssinous kept his cool to reduce the arrears to 26-22 with the conversion.
The visitors then produced what had previously seemed unthinkable by taking the lead on 63 minutes, when John Wilson collected Hughes' pass to crash over in the corner.
Frayssinous then kicked his fourth conversion to draw a chorus of boos from the home crowd as Castleford bordered on throwing away all their early hard work.
But the crowd of 5,825 need not have worried for too long, as first Shenton collected a pass from Roarty to score in the right-hand corner, and then Viane rounded things off with the last touch of the game.
By Wayne Gardiner, PA Sport
Leeds got their season back on track by ruthlessly disposing of local rivals Castleford in their rearranged engage Super League clash.
Following the postponement of the tie on Friday night due to freezing conditions in West Yorkshire, Leeds wasted little time in reapplying the heat on current leaders St Helens, making a mockery of the close battles these two clubs have shared over the years and in the process subjecting Terry Matterson's men to a record Super League loss.
Coach Tony Smith was able to hand a Leeds debut to forward Ian Kirke, while Danny Williams retained his place on the wing at the expense of Lee Smith.
Castleford were able to welcome Matt Whitaker back from an ankle injury, although a knee problem ruled Danny Ward out of making an instant return to the club which sacked him just over a month ago.
Despite securing their first win of the season against Catalans last weekend, any hopes the Tigers may have had of backing up that win were well and truly over by the interval.
Aside from their poor discipline, conceding eight first-half penalties, they also shipped seven tries to trail 42-8 at the break.
Chev Walker and Rob Burrow were the main architects of their downfall, the former bagging a hat-trick and the latter a brace as Leeds ran riot. They had taken an early lead through Burrow, who collected Williams' pass to race over, before Willie Poching breezed into a gap to score in the corner.
Walker then posted a length-of-the-field score after a Paul Handforth pass went astray with Leeds camped on their own line, quickly followed by Kirke marking his debut by cantering into a gap to score under the posts.
With Castleford visibly wilting, Burrow outfoxed their defence to jink over for his second, before Walker registered a quickfire double, the second of which came right on the half-time hooter to secure his treble. Kevin Sinfield converted all seven tries, while Castleford's contribution came via a try from Tom Haughey and two Craig Huby goals. All their points were scored while down to 12 men, with Danny Sculthorpe in the sin bin for dissent.
The second half began in similar fashion with Danny McGuire racing clear of the defence after collecting Richie Mathers' pass, before Ryan McGoldrick provided some respite for the visitors, collecting Gray Viane's offload to cross the line.
With the scores set at 48-14, any hopes of a comeback were somewhat fanciful, and that was confirmed when Mathers helped Leeds pass the 50-point barrier with his first try of the season, stepping past the Tigers' defence with ease.
After a quiet period, Ali Lauitiiti restored order with a typically rampaging effort, before Ryan Bailey followed suit after charging down the middle of the field. Sinfield converted both and ended with a 100% record from his 11 goal attempts.
Castleford coach Terry Matterson made a dream return to the capital as the Tigers overturned an early 14-point deficit to move above Harlequins at the bottom of the table.
Matterson - who spent more than three years with the London Broncos at the end of his playing career - must have been fearing the worst when Quins scored three tries inside the first 13 minutes.
But from that moment on the Tigers were outstanding and fully deserved the win.
Quins were rocked before the first whistle when returning skipper Mark McLinden tweaked his hamstring in the warm-up before his first start of the season.
But they shrugged that off and charged in front in the second minute.
Luke Dorn's neat grubber kick sent stand-in captain Lee Hopkins over.
Four minutes later they had a second. Tony Clubb - who took McLinden's place in the starting line-up - ran the length of the field after a Castleford handling error.
Hopkins then dived over in the corner for a second but Castleford reduced the arrears when Waine Pryce got on the end of Ryan McGoldrick's long pass.
And when McGoldrick beat two tacklers and sprinted clear from 60 metres for the Tigers' second try, they had reduced the 14-point gap to four inside three minutes.
But that good work was ruined after 33 minutes when they allowed Thomas Leuluai to glance over from close range.
But when Danny Sculthorpe crashed over on the stroke of half-time and Craig Huby converted the lead was back to four.
And the visitors were level a minute after the restart when Matt Whittaker sent Michael Shenton in at the corner.
They hit the front for the first time 10 minutes later when slick passing allowed Richard Fletcher to finish from 20 metres.
Quins' cause wasn't helped when Dorn was sin-binned for a professional foul on Gray Viane 15 minutes from time.
Huby extended the lead to 28-20 with two penalties and the points were in the bag when hooker Andy Henderson went in under the posts with seven minutes left.
Elsewhere Castleford coach Terry Matterson made a dream return to the capital as the Tigers overturned an early 14-point deficit to move above Harlequins at the bottom of the table.
Matterson - who spent more than three years with the London Broncos at the end of his playing career - must have been fearing the worst when Quins scored three tries inside the first 13 minutes.
But from that moment on the Tigers were outstanding and fully deserved the 34-20 win.
By Paul Kendrick, PA Sport
A classy display from Castleford heaped more pressure on Wigan as Ian Millward's Warriors were soundly beaten at the Jungle.
It had all looked so rosy for the cherry and whites as they raced into a 12-0 lead thanks to a brace from captain Sean O'Loughlin, both neatly crafted by stand-off Danny Orr on his old stamping ground.
However, four tries in less than 20 minutes after half-time saw the Tigers establish themselves in an unassailable position, and leave the Warriors with just one win on the board and a daunting trip to Bradford next weekend.
Wigan got off to the best possible start and it was former Tigers skipper Orr whose creativity opened up the home defence on two occasions.
First his clever kick forward was snapped up by O'Loughlin to touch down under the posts, and then he jinked through and offloaded again to O'Loughlin for try number two.
Goals from Orr and substitute Danny Tickle made the score 12-0 to the visitors as the home side struggled to get anything going in the opening quarter.
They increasingly got a foothold in the game on the back of impressive go-forward from props Danny Sculthorpe - on loan from Wigan - and Danny Nutley, with Danny Ward coming off the bench to provide more bulk.
And the Tigers pulled a try back after 23 minutes, although it came via a mistake from Wigan full-back Chris Ashton.
The youngster took the ball up well but threw a silly pass inside without looking which evaded his colleagues and fell into the hands of Waine Pryce, who scooted 50 yards to score, with Andy Kain converting.
Four minutes later Mick Higham threw another silly pass inside his own half which fell to Richard Fletcher, but he was hauled down a yard shy.
Wigan nearly extended their advantage on the half hour when Ashton burst through down the left and went for the corner, only for Michael Platt to put him in touch eight yards short.
The Tigers had a couple of tries disallowed for offside in the final few minutes of the half as Wigan held on to the interval, but the home side levelled the scores three minutes after the restart.
Platt took the ball from a scrum 10 yards out, and walked through some poor defence from Dennis Moran to score, with Kain's second goal tying the scores at 12-12.
And the roof was nearly blown off the Jungle on 53 minutes when Wigan were unable to get a kick away on the sixth tackle because of super pressure from the chasing defence.
O'Loughlin slipped a risky pass to Orr, who was caught in possession and he was forced to throw the ball to ground, with Paul Handforth picking up to score under the posts.
Three minutes later Castleford were in again when Ashton dropped the ball on his own line under no pressure, and Richard Fa'aoso crashed over from the scrum, Kain converting both for a 24-12 advantage.
Kain crossed again on the hour for his side's fifth try, gliding through yet more non-existent defence, this time from Fletcher, to extend the lead to a commanding 16 points.
Wigan were denied a response on 64 minutes when O'Loughlin's kick eventually found Brett Dallas to cross in the corner only for the referee to rule a knock on in the build-up, and Kain immediately stretched the lead to 30-12 with a penalty given against the Warriors for failing to play the ball correctly.
Moran's kick was collected by Pat Richards to score in the corner with just eight minutes left, with Tickle's super touchline goal reducing the gap to 12.
But Pryce crossed again in the closing stages, with Kain's conversion and a last-minute penalty from Handforth rubbing salt in the Warriors' gaping wounds.
By Ian Laybourn, PA Sport Rugby League Correspondent
Huddersfield held off a spirited fightback from Castleford to claim the points from an extraordinary engage Super League game at the Jungle.
The Giants were coasting to victory when they scored four tries in the first 11 minutes to lead 22-0 but they relaxed their grip and the Tigers hit back to level the scores after an hour.
However, Huddersfield gained their second wind in the last 10 minutes to score two further tries and spare their blushes.
Making first use of a stiff breeze, the visitors enjoyed a whirlwind start with the Castleford defence in total disarray.
Impressive centre Albert Torrens handled twice in a flowing move up the left touchline to enable full-back Paul Reilly to score the first try with just 43 seconds on the clock.
Loose forward Stephen Wild then demonstrated his remarkable pace to score two tries in four minutes, one of them from halfway after Eorl Crabtree had stolen the ball from Tigers full-back Michael Platt.
The lively Wild also combined with centre James Evans to create a try for hooker Brad Drew and, with skipper Chris Thorman kicking three conversions, the game looked over as a contest.
Had right winger Stuart Donlan managed to finish off a clean break from Drew, the visitors would surely have been out of sight.
But the Giants lost Torrens with a leg injury midway through the half and Castleford, inspired by hard-working props Danny Nutley and Danny Ward, eventually clawed their way back into the game.
They profited from errors by Donlan, who missed a one-on-one tackle to let Luke Dyer in for a score, and prop Wayne McDonald, whose wild offload gifted an interception try to Willie Manu, his first for the club.
Manu added a second before half-time to cut the deficit to 22-14 and the second half was less than a minute old when the home struck again in fortuitous fashion.
Reilly fumbled Matt Gardner's pass on his own line and Castleford winger Deon Bird swooped on the loose ball to score his side's fourth try.
Andy Kain's second goal from four attempts brought his side to within two points and they built on the momentum.
The unfortunate Reilly twice more lost the ball to put his side under continuous pressure and, when former prop Paul Jackson was caught offside, Craig Huby levelled the scores with a 60th-minute penalty.
They might have gone on to win it but Michael Shenton knocked on over the line after collecting Kain's high kick.
Crabtree then charged down Kain's attempted drop goal and, when the home side were pulled up for not being square at the play-the-ball, Thorman edged his team back in front with a penalty.
The game was still in the balance when Evans pounced on Robbie Paul's perfectly-judged kick for the clinching try eight minutes from the end.
There was still time for second rower Steve Snitch to score another try and Thorman kicked his sixth goal from seven attempts.
By Ian Laybourn, PA Sport Rugby League Correspondent
Pre-season relegation favourites Castleford missed out on the chance to climb into engage Super League's top six but coach Terry Matterson was encouraged by his side's spirited performance in their 36-22 home defeat by Huddersfield.
For the third game in a row, the Tigers got off to a nightmare start but they overturned a 22-0 deficit thanks to a brace of tries from Willie Manu and others from Luke Dyer and Deon Bird.
They would have gone in front had scrum-half Andy Kain succeeded with a drop-goal attempt on 65 minutes but Huddersfield prop Eorl Crabtree got his body in the way to block the kick.
Giants skipper Chris Thorman then edged his side back in front with a penalty and Huddersfield sealed a fourth win of the season with late tries from James Evans and Steve Snitch.
"We got in a position to win the game," said Matterson. "I thought the momentum was with us but it turned with the charge-down of the field goal.
"Maybe it was a bit too early to go for it but I can't fault the effort of our players. They showed plenty of character.
"I'm not too sure what happened with the start but there were some encouraging performances. They are working hard for each other."
The Giants got off to a whirlwind start, with four tries in the first 11 minutes through Paul Reilly, Stephen Wild (two) and Brad Drew, but almost paid the price for over-confidence.
"I thought we were awesome, offensively a joy to watch," said Huddersfield coach Jon Sharp.
"The problem was we sat there and admired it and, when it came to doing the tough stuff, we didn't handle that part of the game particularly well.
"I thought the start affected our attitude because we over-played at times and gave Cas the opportunity to get back into the game.
"It's difficult to turn the tap back on but fortunately we managed it. We weathered the storm, came back and finished strongly, which was really encouraging.
"Castleford is going to be a tough place to come and I'm really pleased we came away with the two points."