Challenge Cup fifth round: Castleford Tigers make light work of Sheffield Eagles

The Super League club were always the favourites to progress to the final eight and winger Justin Carney ensured there would be no upset with four tries at the Mend-A-Hose Jungle.

Jamie Ellis also helped himself to two tries for Daryl Powell's men while Duane Straugheir and Tom Ashton grabbed second-half scores for the Eagles.

The Eagles started the better of the sides and Scott Turner worked his way over in the corner to stun the home faithful.

However, that was as good as it got for the visitors in the first period, as Cas hit back with a spell of four tries in just 12 minutes. The first of those came when the prolific Carney worked his way over in the corner, before the Australian grabbed his second by claiming Liam Finn's towering kick to touch the ball down.

Jake Webster then found a gap in the Sheffield defence, before turning the ball inside for Grant Millington to go in under the posts, and Kirk Dixon converted for the first time to make it 14-4.

That quickly became 18-4 after Sheffield were called back for offside from the kick-off and the Tigers struck when Ashley Gibson went over for his first try as a Castleford player.

No mood

Super League's high fliers were in no mood to let up on their Championship opponents either, as four more tries effectively killed the game off before half-time.

Despite Dixon having an off day with the boot - he would miss six conversions from eight attempts - he did manage to twist and turn in the tackle to put the ball down for Castleford's fifth try.

Ellis then used his initiative to quickly scoot over the Eagles line and further compile their misery just four minutes later.

There was still time for two more scores for the home side; Daryl Clark finished off a superb break form Michael Shenton to make it 32-4, before Carney claimed his hat-trick by collecting the ball superbly on the left and crashing over. Despite the Eagles leading early on, they were trailing by 32 points at the break.

Sheffield started strongly after the restart, though, and they reached double figures as Straugheir collected his own kick to go over. However, that only stirred the Tigers into life once again, as two quick tries from Jordan Tansey and a second for Ellis put Cas in control once again.

Oliver Holmes then crossed for a superb individual effort to push the Tigers past the 50-point barrier, before sub Ashton restored some more pride for the Eagles by crashing over from close range.

However, Carney could not be kept out of the headlines for too long, and he posted his fourth try five minutes from time to put the gloss on an outstanding victory for Cas, who progress to the next round in impressive fashion.