Castleford booked their place in the Ladbrokes Challenge Cup quarter finals in style - running out 53-10 winners over St Helens at the Mend-A-Hose Jungle.
What had looked like a potential banana skin for the league leaders when the draw was made turned out to be anything but as the Tigers blew away the opposition, leaving the Saints team shellshocked.
Cas opened the scoring when skipper Michael Shenton latched onto a delayed Luke Gale pass, allowing him to get round the outside of opposite centre Ryan Morgan and dive over for a 4-0 lead.
And by the 10 minute mark, Castleford's other centre Jake Webster had increased the lead as he took a superb pass from Tom Holmes and celebrated signing a new contract for 2018 by crossing the whitewash himself.
Luke Gale's conversion made it 10-0 before Saints started their fightback and slowly forced themselves into the game.
Both teams saw possible tries ruled out by the video ref, but it was Morgan who got the next points – beating Greg Eden to a high ball from Matty Smith and giving Saints hope at 10-4.
But that period of dominance turned out to be as good as it got for the visitors.
When Castleford coach Daryl Powell introduced Ben Roberts from the bench to replace Holmes (who was making only his second appearance in the first team), changed the game completely in a 15-minute spell.
Purple patches built on scoring again and again in quick succession have been a feature of the Tigers' success so far this season – but few of them have matched the period which put the game beyond Saints.
The home team's five sets leading up to half time ended in a try, a try, a try, a drop-goal and a try, courtesy of Webster, Paul McShane, Greg Minikin, Luke Gale and Nathan Massey. And Roberts was at the centre of everything – including a spectacular kick into the corner for Minikin's try, when the half-back was running at full-pace having made an explosive break through St Helens' defensive line deep in his own half.
The half-time hooter came with the score at 31-4 and the game effectively over as a contest.
Roberts remained on the bench for the second half, but Cas continued the free-flowing attacks and strong defensive play which have seen them rack up at least 40 points in every home game so far with year.
With a Greg Eden hat-trick, and Greg Minikin's second of the match, the team took their total of tries in the game to 10; with six successful conversions.
Saint scored the last points of the game, with Luke Douglas's try converted by Mark Percival for the 53-10 final score.
But whatever consolation it provided was overshadowed by the scale of the rebuilding task which clearly faces new coach Justin Holbrook when he takes up the job.
Tigers: Hardaker, Minikin (2T), Webster (2T), Shenton (T), Eden (3T), Holmes, Gale (6G, DG), Lynch, McShane (T), Millington, Sene-Lefeo, McMeeken, Milner. Subs: Massey (T), Roberts, Moors, Cook.
Saints: Makinson, Swift, Percival (G), Morgan (T), Grace, Fages, Smith, Walmsley, Roby, Douglas (T), Taia, Knowles, Thompson. Subs: Amor, McCarthy-Scarsbrook, Wilkin, Richards.
Referee: Phil Bentham.
Half-Time: 31-4.
Full-Time: 53-10.
Attendance: .
|