With fourth against six, a gritty West Yorkshire derby, and both sides having a point to prove after disappointing cup exits last weekend, this was never likely to be a game for the purists.

What the Tigers and Giants served up was a game of high intensity, plenty of errors, some poor misjudgements and a great big dollop of late match controversy.

The unsung stars of tonight's show were wearing suits and sat in the video booth.


The opening twenty minutes were a stalemate. The Tigers just shaded the possession and position but a resolute Giants defence kept the home side at bay, and on twenty minutes it was the visitors who opened up a lead thanks to a penalty conceded by Ryan Bailey for stealing the ball in the tackle.

The Giants worked the ball close to the ten metre line and when Huby forced his way over all eyes turned to the video replay which seemed to indicate that the Giants prop had lost the ball in the act of scoring. The video referees looked long and hard at the replays and much to the chagrin of the home support they awarded the try and Brough kicked the goal.

The Tigers were rocked and while they were still recovering Murphy doubled the lead after a high kick to the corner from Brough was fumbled under pressure by Solomona allowing the Giants centre to ground. Brough's touch line conversion was impeccable for 12-0.

Seven minutes out from the interval and the Tigers opened their account thanks to three back-to-back penalties in their favour as ill-discipline hit the Giants. Jake Webster finally bust a Giants tackle off a Luke Gale pass and went over. Gale missed the conversion but his side were back in the game.

A couple of minutes out from the interval and the Giants extended their lead when Ta'ai burrowed under the Tigers defence following a penalty for offside at the scrum. Once again Brough was accurate with the conversion for a comfortable half-time lead of 18-4.

In the second half it was a different Castleford and we looked to have a real game on our hands. On forty-six Ben Roberts ran thirty metres unopposed after picking the ball up at acting half-back and throwing a dummy and Gale added the extras for 10-18.

On sixty-five the margin was down to two after Bailey earned a penalty for his side and in the resulting tackles Shenton ran the angles to,score from twenty metres out giving Gale a simple conversion.

The Tigers were on a roll and looked like sneaking the win but on seventy-three Crabtree burrowed under four tackles to,ground the ball. Referee Silverwood passed the decision to the video referees but awarded an onfield try and despite it appearing that Crabtree grounded the ball short the onfield decision was not overturned. Brough goaled the controversial Crabtree try and the Giants held on for a 24-16 win and the two points.

This was an entertaining game between two evenly matched sides. The Giants were heavily penalised throughout the game but got the rub of the green from two controversial video referee decisions (the Huby and Crabtree tries). The Tigers supporters booed the officials off the pitch and it is Daryl Powell who will be picking up the pieces on Monday morning.

The Giants won't be complaining, they are now three points clear of the Wolves in fourth spot and looking forward to. Game against the Dragons in Newcastle next weekend.

Rhinos: Tansey, Gibson, Webster, Shenton, Solomona, Roberts, Gale, Lynch, Milner, Bailey, Holmes, Mariano, Massey. Subs: Millington, Jewitt, Finn, McMeeken.

Giants: Grix, McGillvary, Murphy, Connor, Broughton, Brough, Wood, Mullally, Leeming, Huby, Wardle, Hughes, Ferres. Subs: Robinson, Crabtree, Kopczak, Ta'ai.


Referee: Richard Silverwood
Attendance: 4,634