The Champions have spent the week licking their wounds after last Sunday's World Club Challenge 39-0 drubbing at the hands of South Sydney Rabbitohs. It was a great chance to get back on the horse as Castleford Tigers came to town on the back of five successive losses, and not having beaten Saints in the last fourteen attempts.

It had been a fast turnaround for Saints, just five days after that draining game against the best of Australia. The visitors had almost two weeks to prepare as they looked to get their 2015 season started with a first two pointer.


It was an evenly matched first half, betrayed by the half time scoreline of ten-nil to the home side.

Saints scored their opening try after eleven minutes when they made good pressure pay after a calamitous knock-on under the high kick by Tansey. On the second consecutive set of six the ball was moved wide and Swift went over. Percival was accurate with the boot.

Castleford were in the game from the start and should have taken a lead before the half-hour but two forward passes on the final ball saw tries ruled out by referee Silverwood, some may say a little harshly.

Despite the lion-share of territory and possession for the Tigers, it was Saints who finished the half on the attack and with a couple of minutes remaining Makinson walked over the line off a Lomax pass. Percival failed with the kick but his side carried a decent lead into the interval.

A brain explosion from Carney within the opening couple of minutes of the second half put his side further behind. He'd fielded a kick through on his own twenty but rather than take the tackle he passed to no-one, and the loose ball was gifted to Jones who walked in. Again Percival failed with the kick but it was a hammer blow for Castleford.

Carney made amends for Castleford, twice in two minutes. On forty-eight he went five metres off a Shenton pass as Makinson left his wing to come inside to tackle Shenton, Two minutes later and a pinpoint kick from Gale was collected on the full by Carney without a Saints player within twenty metres of him. Gale failed to convert both tries but Castleford were back within a converted try at 14-8.

When Saints Kyle Amor was sin-binned after fifty-nine for a crusher tackle, it looked like momentum may have shifted in the direction of the Yorkshire side but it was the twelve men who would register the next score. Three passes from the back of the scrum and Percival scored one-handed in the left corner, and then goaled superbly from the touch line for 20-8.

With seven minutes left John Wilkin set himself and slipped over a drop goal (his first for ten years) to take the margin to thirteen points and maintain the Saints 100% Super League XX record, putting them back at the top of the table.

There was a late consolation try for Jordan Tansey as he collected and grounded a Gale kick under the sticks. Gale added the extras for a final score of 21-14. But the clock ran down for the Saints win.

Saints: Lomax, Makinson, Percival, Jones, Swift, Burns, Wilkin, Amor, Roby, Walmsley, Greenwood, Vea, McCarthy-Scarsbrook. Subs: Masoe, Flanagan, Thompson, Richards.

Tigers: Tansey, Solomona, Channing, Shenton, Carney, Finn, Gale, Lynch, Moore, Millington, Holmes, Moors, Massey. Subs: Milner, Cook, Boyle, McMeeken.

Referee: Richard Silverwood
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