Rhinos revival continues

Defending champions Leeds ran in seven tries for the second time in seven days at Headingley to beat Castleford 40-22.

Ryan Hall, Rob Burrow and Ben Jones-Bishop all touched down twice as the Rhinos built on their 44-40 win over Wakefield which had lifted them back into the top eight.

They are now up to sixth while the Tigers are floundering in 12th after suffering a fourth defeat in five matches and with renewed doubt over the future of Rangi Chase, the reigning Man of Steel and England international who was left out of the side as a disciplinary measure.

It was all too easy for Leeds, who led 40-6 after an hour, although Castleford added a touch of respectability to the scoreline by scoring the last three tries of the game, two of them while down to 12 men.

Jones-Bishop had opened the scoring in the 12th minute after being put into the clear by his fit-again centre Kallum Watkins and it could have been his hat-trick.

The England Knights winger had been pushed into touch just short of the line by his opposite number Nick Youngquest and had another effort disallowed for a forward pass from Danny McGuire.

Leeds captain Kevin Sinfield missed the conversion attempt but went on to land six from seven attempts.

The champions were not slow to go to their free-scoring wingmen but were also able to make inroads through the heart of the visitors' defence, as they demonstrated on 15 minutes when teenage loose forward Stevie Ward went through a gap and got Burrow over for the first of his two tries.

The diminutive scrum-half added his second five minutes later after Danny McGuire's long pass got Hall charging down the wing and Zak Hardaker took his inside pass to send the supporting Burrow under the posts.

Stemmed tide

The Tigers briefly stemmed the tide when prop forward Paul Jackson stepped past a wrong-footed Jamie Jones-Buchanan to score his first try since the opening day of the 2011 season.

Skipper Danny Orr, taking the goalkicking responsibilities in the absence of the injured Kirk Dixon, added the conversion but Leeds made it 22-6 at the break when Hall took a return pass from his centre Carl Ablett to register his 500th point for the club.

The highlight of the match came seven minutes into the second half when man of the match Hardaker demonstrated pace, agility and strength to beat five defenders on a 60-metre run before giving Watkins the easiest of finishes for Leeds' fifth try.

Hardaker then showed his defensive mettle to haul down Tigers centre Jordan Thompson in full flight for the line before Jones-Bishop and Hall both collected their second tries.

The former swooped on a stray Castleford pass to sprint 50 metres to the line while Hall outjumped Brett Ferres to gather Sinfield's crossfield kick and touch down.

Trailing 40-6, the afternoon got worse for the Tigers when full-back Richard Owen was sin-binned for fighting with Burrow.

However, they rallied while down to 12 men, scoring tries through Ferres and prop Craig Huby, who also kicked a conversion, while Ferres grabbed his second four minutes from the end, with Ryan McGoldrick this time adding the goal.