Super League: Castleford Tigers see off Hull KR
Castleford moved joint top with a 30-10 victory at Hull KR, Richard Owen scoring a hat-trick of tries for the Tigers.
Last Updated: 28/02/14 10:30pm
Luke Dorn and Oliver Holmes also crossed and Marc Sneyd was flawless with the boot, landing five conversions.
James Green had given Rovers an early lead and Omari Caro's try on the stroke of half time gave them some hope as they trailed 18-10 at the interval, but they struggled throughout to break through the disciplined Castleford defence.
The home side opened the scoring when front rower Green took scrum-half Kris Keating's short pass near the line to crash over and Travis Burns added the goal to make it 6-0.
Any hope of the Robins capitalising on their lively opening disappeared, however, when Keating fumbled the ball from the re-start and that gifted the Tigers the position from which Owen scored twice in eight minutes to take the lead.
Second rower Weller Hauraki combined with centre Michael Channing to get the right winger over for his first and Owen then leapt above Eden to collect Liam Finn's high kick.
Another pinpoint kick from Finn set up second rower Frankie Mariano for his first try for Castleford and Sneyd's third goal extended his side's lead to 18-6 after 26 minutes.
Sin-bin
Castleford were reduced to 12 men when Finn was sin-binned for what appeared to be a 'chicken wing tackle' on centre Kris Welham, but they continued to defend heroically until right winger Omari Caro took Eden's pass to produce a strong finish for Rovers' second try in the last move of the first half.
That cut the Tigers' lead to eight points and, although they had fought back from 24-6 down at half-time to earn a draw at Huddersfield in their last match, they never looked repeating the feat, despite the sterling efforts of winger Ben Cockayne in both defence and attack.
The visitors spent most of the second half camped inside their own half but they continued to look dangerous on the counter attack and Mariano and hooker Daryl Clarke had tries disallowed by video referees Ian Smith and Phil Bentham.
Burns' 40-20 kick went to waste as Castleford soaked up everything the Robins could throw at them
The Tigers finally made sure of the points 13 minutes from the end when substitute forward Oliver Holmes crossed wide out for their fourth try before Owen completed his hat-trick five minutes from the end, with Sneyd maintaining his accuracy with his fifth conversion.
