Round 1 - Wigan Warriors v Castleford Tigers

Having made the decision to watch the game on SKY rather than actually go to the game, this match report should be more accurate than my recollection of the last game (that's my excuse anyway!!!)

Cas Team : Flowers, Gay, Critchley, Mather, Ellison, Davies, Ford, McKell, Russell, Tallec , Schick, Sykes, Vowles

Subs : Maloney, Orr, Harland, Smith

Wigan Kick off and Cas don't really gain any ground on their first 2 sets of 6.

5 minutes gone and Cas are passing the ball around well and gaining ground.

After a Wigan forward pass Cas get the scrum well in the Wigan half. On the 6th tackle Ford puts up the high bomb and after Gay/Robinson taps the ball back, Mather comes up with the ball over the line for a try

8 minutes gone - Wigan 0 Cas 4

14 minutes gone and the Tigers are still holding their own. Wigan crowd start calls for offside and eventually get a penalty. They knock on on the 2nd tackle!!!

The field is very slippy and players are having trouble keeping their feet.

After a mistake by McKell (again) Simon Haughton eventually drops the ball and has to leave the field with an shoulder injury. The ref makes a mistake and awards the scrum feed to the Warriors. Again, they make a mistake and throw the ball in to touch!!!.

Mestrov makes a right hash of collecting the ball on the first tackle after 21 minutes and Cas go on the attack. They don't capitalise after throwing the ball out wide left with Critchley just not being able to hang on to the final pass.

Cas doing okay in defence and Wigan not on top form yet.

After absorbing some Wigan pressure, Davies puts in a great kick to touch to help the lads out.

Cas under pressure in their own 10 get more Wigan help after a flop by Danny Moore.

31 minutes gone - Jason Flowers makes a big error dropping an Andy Farrell high bomb which Henry Paul collects for a try. After a video ref decision the try is given. Farrell adds the extra 2 for a score of:

Wigan 6 Tigers 4

Cas not doing any attacking in the Wigan half. They need to make more ground and breaks.

38 mins - Conditions are really bad now with rain puring down. On the 5th Wigan tackle Cas give away a stupid penalty.

The half time hooter goes for a score of Wigan 6 Cas 4

Cas are doing better than I expected but need to show a few more attacking ideas in the 2nd half.

4 minutes in to the 2nd half and cas rip the ball out in the tackle for a penalty straight in front of the stick. Farrell misses the kick so it's still 6-4 to Wigan.

Cas under immense pressure and quick Wigan hands finally tell for a Tony Smith try. Farrell gets the kick for a score of Wigan 12 Cas 4

Not a lot happening - handling errors from both sides.

5 minutes to go and Cas don't look capable of winning this now. Not a bad performance but equally, not a great one. Things still look good though for a decent season.

Tony Smith scores another try in the final minute after a bit of a lucky kick from Cowie. Smith went in unde the posts after a short sprint. Farrell adds another 2 for a final score of :

Wigan Warriors 18 Cas Tigers 4

Round 2 - Castleford Tigers v Sheffield Eagles

I actually went to this game!!! so here's how I saw it.

A couple of complaints towards the club before I start the actual match report. The car park has suddenly seen a 100% increase in charges. It now costs 2 pound instead of the previous 1 pound. Having said that, the car park was still full but it will be interesting to see if it is half empty at the next game now that people know how much it is.

Another small moan - The dancers/cheerleaders only ever perfom to the people in the main stand. Have them dance in the middle of the field or even have them performing at different ends of the ground at different games. Although I don't personally think they add anything to the game, it would be nice for everyone to get a chance to see them instead of just a few people who have paid extra for a seat in the main stand.

Okay, on to the game.

The weather was realy really really terrible, The rain was heavy and non-stop and there was a heavy swirling wind blowing towards the railway end.

Cas Team : Flowers, Gay, Critchley, Mather, Wells, Davies, Ford, Sampson, Russell, Sykes , Schick, Smith, Vowles

Subs : Orr, Harland, Maloney, McKell

Cas start the first half playing towards the Wheldon Road (Kop) end.

The Eagles get 2 early penalties and in the 4th minute a high bomb is put up by them. Flowers misjudges the ball in the air (due to the atrocious conditions) and Sheffield go in for the first try of the game. They add the kick for a 6:0 lead. Flowers' mistake was pretty similar to the one he made last week against Wigan and I can see him being tested by a few teams in this manner this season now that they know he is susceptible to spilling the high bomb.

Colin Morris (ref) is having a crap game as usual.

Cas do most of the attacking and after 25 minutes the ref checks with the touch judge and the endzone judge to see if a Cas player was interfered with. He only awards a drop out much to the crowds displeasure.

In the 27th minute Cas get a penalty and decide to run the ball. Flowers eventually powers over just to the left of the sticks and Davies adds the 2 for a score of 6:6

The 35th minute and Cas have 18 tackles in the Eagles 20 metre line but they fail to score. Cas need to show just a bit more adventure in attack. BJ Mather is having a pretty poor game so far but he has been getting a lot of difficult balls.

The half time hooter sounds for a score of Castleford Tigers 6 Sheffield Eagles 6

The second half starts with conditions just as bad. It only takes the Tigers 3 minutes for Danny Orr to score a try after a 50 yard kick downfield from a penalty and a couple of close drives for the line. Davies nails the kick from just to the right of the sticks for a score of 12:6 to Cas

The Kop are actually starting to sing "Viva Brad Davies" and also the "we will rock you" chant. The attendance is announced as 5238 which is pretty good considering how horrible a day it is.

The Cas defence holds up well taking 12 Eagles tackles in a row without conceding any points.

Cas are playing good tactical rugby with long balls dowfield into the endzone. The balls are stopping dead and Cas are gaining good field position from these.

The Tigers should have gone even further ahead in the 62nd minute when BJ Mather could have slid in at the right hand side for a try himself but tried to get a pass out to the winger, who knocked on.

After a penalty to Cas, we ran the ball and Brad Davies managed to kick a drop goal for a 13:6 lead. This made the game slightly easier to watch at this stage with a 2 try cushion.

2 minutes later and the Tigers kick another long ball into the left hand corner. Jason Critchley manages to get to the ball before any Sheffield player and touches down for a Tiger try. The kick is missed and the score now stands at 17:6 in favour of Cas.

The 80th minute and Cas gain another penalty. They take a shot at goal and Davies gets 2 more points. The final hooter sounds and Cas get their first Superleague win of the season by a score of 19:6

Richard Russell was awarded the man of the match award.

This was a good performance by Cas under bad conditions. They really looked in control for large chunks of the game and Sheffield didn't have any answers.

Bring on the Rhino's next week!!!!!!

Castleford Tigers 22 Sheffield Eagles 32

Having got down the lane to see the game I'm as disapointed as no doubt you all are. I don't think that we played particularly badly but Sheffield were a lot better than I thought they would be. I wonder if the team also underestimated them?

One of Sheffields obvious strengths was obviously their ball handling skill. I counted only 1 dropped ball from them and this was in the final few minutes.

I must apologise for the lack of a decent match report for the game this week. As I've already said, I only just made it back in time for the game and I forgot to set the video so I could analyse the game later. I also forgot to take a pen and paper to the game to write down all the incidents/scorers etc. I promise to improve for future games (honest).

My recollection of the game is as follows.

A large crowd again is gathered in the ground (announced as 7400 and something) The Eagles supporters are very vocal in their organised chanting but that is to be expected. Their football team has the famous England Football Team Band and from watching Sheffield at Ice-Hockey, I know what sort of chants can be produced by their fans.

Cas try something new with TIGERMAN holding up signs for the Kop to sign and chant. The one for "Viva Brad Davis" was especially good but during the game the crowd actually got into the "c'mon c'mon" chant but failed miserably to clap in time to the music for the simple "clap clap clap" chant.

Anyway, on to the actual game and both teams get off to a decent start. The ref - Connolly (sp?) don't know which one it was - seemed to be letting most of the offences go.

Sheffield score the first try with a bit of help from a sloppy Cas defence.

Cas score the next try with a ball swung out left and Brad Davis goes over but misses the kick. 6:4 to Sheffield.

Sheffield then score a great try on the left wing with I think Sovitabua (sp?) doing most of the work and getting a great pass out. You can't fault rugby as good as that!!!

This is where my memory of the game becomes a bit rusty. I believe that Sheffield scored another one before the break and also Cas got one back with BJ Mather going over the line. The score was something like 18:10 at the half.

Sheffield scored the first try of the 2nd half to go further ahead.

One of their trys came after a mistake by what looked to me like Dean Sampson not clearing the ball over the deadball line and an Eagle player jumping on it.

Cas then got an interception try by Mather again. After he scored he got whacked on the chin by a Sheffield player who should have been sent from the field of play. Instead, the ref decided to put him on report. There were definately 3 officials close to the incident so it's difficult to believe that none of them saw the punch. I managed to see it from the other side of the ground!!.

Whether this would have changed the game we will never know but shortly after the try Cas scored again after a great strong run by Adrian Vowles. Cas were only 4 points behind and were in the driving seat.

Unfortunately it wasn't to be and another 2 Sheffield trys killed the game off. Cas got a late try after some sloppy marking by Sheffield but it was all in vain.

The final score was Castleford Tigers 22 Sheffield Eagles 32

Sorry for the sketchy details of the game. In the future I should be more observant!!!

So, where does this now leave Cas ? Obviously, out of the cup!!!! In my opinion, even though we lost, we again put up a decent performance. Hopefully if we do the same in our league games a top 5 spot will be obtainable. This is what we should set our sights on and in the playoffs anything can happen.

Castleford Tigers v Bradford Bulls Challenge Cup 5th round

Having got to the ground around 2:15, the car park was already full. After finding somewhere to park we got into the ground only to have to queue 20 minutes to get served at the bar. The ground was packed and the official attendance was 10,273.

We decided to stand on the halfway line and our little group of 6 people found ourselves vastly outnumbered by Bulls fans. They certainly know how to sing and have a good time.

Cas Team : Flowers, Gay, Critchley, Mather, Vowles, Davies, Ford, Sampson, Orr, Mckell, Tallec, Schick, Harland.

Cas recieved the opening kickoff playing towards the railway end. We drew the 1st penalty on the 1st set of 6 and then got another one in front of the sticks. After Davies finally got the ball to stand up, he put it over the sticks for a 2:0 Tigers lead.

Bradford got a penalty straight back from the kickoff and from this they scored a try. Stuart Spruce just got the ball over the line. McDermott missed the kick from in front of the posts!!! This was the worst kick that I have ever witnessed. The ball hit the crossbar and bounced off it. 4:2 to the Bulls.

With 13 minutes gone BJ Mather got the ball out to Gay on the wing who managed to get to the 20 yard line before being tackled by Edwards. With the Bradford defence struggling to get back, Edwards holds on for too long and gets sin binned.

16th minute and Ford slips a pass to Brad Davies. He beats 2 tackles, cuts inside and scores the try. He also kicks the 2 points for a 8:4 lead

The 19th minute and Bradford lose the ball in the tackle. Gael Tallec finds a gap in the defence and scores under the posts. Yes!!!! we are playing superbly and Edwards must be miffed that he has cost his team 2 tries. Davies adds the goal for a 14:4 lead.

The Cas defence was playing superbly, stopping everything that the Bulls could throw at them. Bradford got over the try line on 2 occasions only to be held up on their backs.

It wasn't until the 35th minute that Bradford finally managed to break the Cas line again. We finally missed some tackles and James Lowes flopped over. He missed the kick for a 14:8 Cas lead.

In to first half injury time and Cas have the ball on their own 20 yard line. Brad Davies runs to the left, passes round a bulls player to Jason Critchley who sprints away from the defenders. He passes the ball out to Ellison on the wing who shows his speed and touches down for another Tigers try. Davies again adds the kick for a halftime lead of 20:8

Having been shouting for Cas and having had a few "disagreements" with the Bulls supporters around us throughout the first half, I was surprised to find them most hospitable once we got talking to them. We even got some coffee and a Twix off them!!! It's good to see that people can still behave in a friendly manner even when their team is losing. Well done Bulls fans :-)

Following the 2nd half kickoff, the Bulls score after a couple of minutes. Paul and Bradley found Peacock for a good try which Lowe converted. Score 20:14 to Cas

In the 47th minute Peacock got hit in the jaw accidently and had to go off injured. Soon after Cas spear tackled Bradley and he had a bit of a pushing session with Danny Orr. Cas could well have had a man sin binned for this incident but were lucky to get away with just conceding a penalty.

The Cas defence was still playing out of it's skin. It's amazing to think how much it's improved since last season.

In the 56th minute Bradford kicked the ball through and Brad Davies makes a hash of gathering the ball. Matt Calland scored an easy try for the Bulls and Lowe leveled the score with the kick. 20:20

Cas were starting to look really tired and I thought they were out of the game. They had only had 1 attack in the entire second half so far.

We had a drop goal attempt blocked but the Bulls managed to pop one of their own over after 65 minutes for a 21:20 lead. It was sloppy defence by Cas as no-one shut down McNnamara as he kicked the ball. Things didn't look good for the Tigers.

The 71st minute and Cas' 3rd attackof the 2nd half!!! After a Mather charge, the ball was played out to Maloney who fed Jason Flowers with a great inside pass. He ran straight and hard and managed to get the ball ovr the line with 2 tacklers clinging to him. Davies got the kick for a 26:21 Cas lead.

There was still 9 minutes to go and plenty of injury time - a win was by no means certain yet.

The Cas defence continued to play very very well. We stopped all that Bradford could throw at us. Robbie Paul got himself knocked out and had to leave the field.

The hooter finally went in the 3rd minute of injury time for a well deserved victory. The crowd went absolutely wild and so did the players. it was as good as winning Wembley!!!!

The team played superbly. I've just watched the game on TV after getting home from the match and the electric, tense atmosphere generated by the crowd wasn't fully conveyed to the TV audience. You had to be there to fully appreciate it.

What a great game. 2 great victory's already this season. The players playing with some heart and passion. Stuart Raper has certainly done a great job so far.

Well done to all the players and coaching staff on a superb victory.

Leeds 12 Cas 15

Match Details

Cas Team : Flowers, Gay, Critchley, Mather, Vowles, Davies, Ford, Harland, Sykes, Schick, Sampson, McKell, Orr

Subs : Maloney, Wells, Tallec, Smith

We're wearing nice new shirts - the best I've seen us in for a long time!!!!

After 7 minutes Danny Orr has to be stretchered off the field with a neck injury.

Cas get the ball out wide after a penalty and Barrie Jon Mather breaks one tackle and goes over in the corner for the first try of the season in proper competition. Maloney kicks the goal from the touchline.

Cas 6 Leeds 0

Leeds continue to give silly penalties away (keep it up lads!!!)

17 minutes gone and Richard Gay receives a hard tackle from 3 Rhinos. Jon Wells comes on as a sub for him.

Sampson gives away a penalty for a high tackle and Leeds opt to run the ball. Mather intercepts and clears the danger.

Orr returns to the Cas bench - he appears to be okay.

Michael Smith comes on after 25 minutes

Tony Kemp gets sin binned after 26 minutes for interfering with a player while the ball was in the air. He doesn't look very happy!!! Maloney misses the penalty.

Ford gets a drop goal (barely) for a 7:0 lead after 29 minutes

Cas are playing superbly in defence.

Michael Smith holds a Leeds player down for too long and Harris kicks a penalty for them

7:2 to Cas

Leeds on the attack for about 5 minutes but keep making mistake after mistake.

Cas hold out on their own line again in injury time. Mike Ford gets a cut to his face (blood all over) and goes to the blood bin.

Cas get a penalty 40 yards out in the 43rd minute (still first half) but before any damage can be done the half time hooter sounds.

Half time score : Leeds 2 Castleford 7

Ray French doesn't get any better at commentary.

Leeds attacking again but Cas hold them out (I'm sure I've said this before!!!)

Maloney breaks through and passes to Critchley. He gets tackled just before the line. After a couple of sloppy passes Cas get a penalty for offside and Maloney misses another 2 points.

Cas give away a penalty after 48 minutes and Harris opts to go for goal.

Leeds 4 Cas 7

Flowers is looking solid at full back.

54 minutes gone and Leeds break down the right. The move ends with Tony Kemp getting 4 points putting the ball down nearly under the posts. Harris adds the extra 2

Score Leeds 10 Cas 7

Cas get another penalty in the 65th minute. There haven't been too many chances this half for the Tigers to score. Brad davies kicks the goal for a score of 10:9 to the Rhinos.

Maloney misses a drop goal - it goes just wide left.

75th minute and we give away a silly penalty. Harris kicks the goal for a 12:9 lead.

Cas on the attack with under a minute to go - so near to scoring but just can't get over the line.

High bomb is put up on the last tackle and Schick comes down with the ball and puts it over the line for a try. CAS LEAD!!!!! in injury time - what a finish!!!!!!! Crowd goes wild (well, the Tigers contingent do) Brad Davies kicks the goal and the final whistle goes for a score of :

Leeds 12 Cas 15

So, missed kicks could have lost us the game but we did it in the end. Neither side looked particularly dangerous on attack but I think the game showed that the Tigers won't be whipping boys this season. We appear to have sorted our defence out and the players that Stuart Raper has brought in have improved the side no end.

Great game to start off the season and also to see us in to the 5th round of the cup.