Luke Gale stars as Castleford Tigers surprise slumping Leeds Rhinos
Last Updated: 18/09/15 9:43am
Leeds Rhinos lost their third successive Super 8s fixture as local rivals Castleford came away from Headingley with a 29-22 victory.
The Super League leaders made slow starts to both halves, with Luke Gale scoring two of Castleford's five tries to leave the door open for Wigan Warriors to take top spot on Friday.
Leeds appeared to be half asleep for the first 10 minutes, showing little reaction to their defeats by St Helens and Catalans Dragons in the past fortnight.
Grant Millington set up Gale to open the scoring in the sixth minute and three minutes later Gale and Michael Shenton linked up to send Denny Solomona over a second try.
Much of that slow start was forgotten in the next 10 minutes with Kevin Sinfield's sublime cross-field kick setting up Ryan Hall for a reply, and Leeds levelled things at 12-12 when a Danny McGuire kick was not dealt with by Mike McMeeken and Joel Moon pounced to score.
Zak Hardaker had a try called back for obstruction but Leeds took the lead when Hall bulldozed over in the corner after more good work from Sinfield and McGuire, only for Castleford to go in level at the break thanks to a Luke Dorn try.
The Rhinos lost Sinfield to an apparent thigh injury and his absence appeared to affect them badly in the early minutes of the second period, the Tigers again going over twice in quick succession.
Gale scored the first of those, a possible try of the season candidate, after he took a pass from Matt Cook over the line - Cook had done all the hard work, holding off a host of challengers to go more than 50 metres before playing in the Tigers half-back.
Their next try was a flowing 80-metre move involving man of the match Gale and Ben Roberts, who broke from deep and went on to finish the score after taking a superb inside pass from Gale.
Adam Cuthbertson got Leeds back within six points with a try after good work from teenager Jordan Lilley but a drop goal from Roberts extended the lead to seven and a series of Rhinos mistakes meant that would be the final score.
Defeat leaves the Rhinos on 39 points, level with Wigan, but the Warriors could take top spot on Friday when they face St Helens, for whom a win would see them move within a point of the summit.
Huddersfield could also move on to 38 points with a win over Hull FC and they face Leeds in the final set of league fixtures next week.
