Huddersfield 16-24 Castleford: Tigers continue winning ways over Giants
Last Updated: 03/09/17 11:28am
Leading try scorer Greg Eden took his tally to 36 as Betfred Super League Leaders' Shield winners Castleford maintained their momentum with a 24-16 victory at Huddersfield.
The Tigers clinched top spot in the table with victory over Wakefield just over a fortnight ago but refused to take their foot off the accelerator against the Giants, for whom defeat effectively ends any hope of climbing in among the top four play-off contenders.
The Giants were bolstered by the return from injury of skipper Leroy Cudjoe, Oliver Roberts and Sam Rapira, while the Tigers made five changes from the side which beat Wakefield.
Cas, who have now won all but one of their last 16 League and Super Eight games, trailed 12-6 at half-time as Oliver Roberts and Paul Clough scored tries for Giants to overturn an early score from Jake Webster.
However, further tries from Ben Roberts, Eden and Luke Gale after the break helped the visitors ease to a 23rd win of the campaign.
The Tigers struck first when Paul McShane and Ben Roberts combined to put strong-running centre Webster over, on his 200th appearance in the British game.
Luke Gale curled over the conversion on his way to a four-goal haul which helped take him past the 300-point mark for the season in league action.
Jermaine McGillvary, also marking 200 appearances for the Giants, went close at the other end but was just held up before Brough sent Oliver Roberts charging over after disruptive work from Ukuma Ta'ai. Brough uncharacteristically missed a relatively simple kick to leave Cas still two points ahead.
Rapira was held on his back before Paul Clough pounced from close range to score and Jordan Rankin, who has just signed a new three-year deal with the Giants, goaled to put the home side in front.
Just before the break, Cas were penalised for an incident which was put on report by referee Scott Mikalauskas and Rankin added a further two points.
The second half was barely three minutes old when Roberts went diagonally through, almost unopposed, with Gale's conversion levelling the scores.
Lee Gaskell was held up and a breaking McGillvary was then called back for a forward pass from Cudjoe, before the Tigers regained the lead when Eden crossed for a trademark try in the corner, after good vision from Gale - who converted from the touchline.
Eden then repaid the favour by running free and sending the supporting Gale clear to score and although Darnell McIntosh grabbed a late try in the corner for the Giants, it proved to be purely a consolation.
