Leeds were quick off the mark with Alfie Johnson scored on seven minutes to give the Rhinos an early lead. Jack Sinfield and Fergus McCormack combined well to spread the ball wide, finding Johnson with an easy dive in the right corner.
This began an onslaught from the Rhinos with Sinfield turning from provider to finisher this time on the left edge after charging at the Tigers’ defensive line, throwing the dummy pass before adding a step off the left foot creating a gap ahead big enough for him to squeeze threw and score the try which he added the extras and push the score to 10-0 with only ten minutes on the clock.
Moments later Leeds were back attacking the Castleford line, this time Sinfield running at the line to find second rower forward Ben Littlewood running a line against the play and found him with a short pass. The Tiger’s defence couldn’t do anything to stop the charge from Littlewood and he crashed over beside the post taking a couple of Castleford defenders with him. The Rhinos were at full tilt at this point and scored again minutes later, Sinfield kicking high on the last tackle towards the right edge and winger Alfie Johnson leaping highest to take the ball and score his second try of the night to give the home side a 22-point lead in as many minutes.
Both sides then shared possession but couldn’t complete their sets given the errors and penalties, but on the thirty-minute mark winger Johnson completed his hat trick scoring probably one of the easiest tries of his career owing to the huge overlap created by the forwards in the middle allowing Johnson to dive over in the corner. With only a couple of minutes left in the game the away side hit back when winger Daniel Sarbah screamed for the ball down the blind edge and got his wish when the ball came his way and squeezed in at the corner leaving the half time score at 28-4
Leeds set off the second half in similar fashion to the first with Jack Sinfield crossing for his second of the night in a carbon copy of his first half try, throwing the dummy before stepping off his left foot creating space ahead of him to score the try. Moments later Sinfield completed his own hat trick owing to a great break from young hooker Joe Diskin racing from dummy half breaking down the middle finding Sinfield in support crossing over to score his third and with the conversion pushing the score to 44-4.
Leeds were back at full throttle and scored minutes later with Alfie Johnson scoring his fourth of the night with an jaw dropping weaving run from thirty metres out to score beside the post and with Sinfield having as well earned rest, Shane Tuohey took the conversion. The final twenty minutes saw the home side take their foot off the pedal and allow Castleford to score, firstly, Luis Johnson crossed down the left flank, spotting a tiring defence to take advantage and score. Then Alfie Dean took his opportunity to score down the left flank again after their middles created an overlap out wide for the visitors. But the visitors weren’t giving up easily and still managed to score again after a well worked move created space down Leeds’ left edge for full back Fletcher Rooney to race through and score leaving the full time score at 50-20.
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