Rhinos roar as Tigers roll over

Leeds battled back to an 18-12 victory over Castleford after their missing men looked set to cost the Rhinos dear.

The Super League leaders were without 14 players due to international call-ups, injuries and suspensions and trailed 10-0 early in the second half.

But they dug deep to avoid a third successive defeat, hitting back with tries from Lee Smith, Brent Webb and Matt Diskin.

Remarkably, and to their credit, 13 of Leeds' 17 players had progressed through the youth system at Headingley.

Two 19-year-olds - Ben Jones-Bishop and Danny Allan - lined up at full-back and stand-off respectively and certainly showed no signs of stagefright.

Both were prominent during the early exchanges but after Leeds failed to make their dominance pay Castleford forged ahead through Richard Owen who touched down in the left corner to finish off a fine move which saw the ball pass through five pairs of hands.

Pressure

The score capped a spell of pressure from the visiting side but after Craig Huby failed to convert the try, the Rhinos produced an encouraging response and Allan was desperately unlucky not to cap his first senior start with a try.

The rangy half-back collected possession just inside the Castleford half and advanced forward at pace but saw his progress halted by a fine saving tackle from Owen just short of the line.

Huby extended the visitors' lead soon after with a routine penalty but Castleford failed to make their territorial dominance pay as the interval approached as scrum-half Brent Sherwin skewed a drop-goal attempt wide shortly before the break.

However, Westerman's half-time introduction injected added firepower into Castleford and he embarked on a powerful run from deep which created the field position which culminated in the teenager grounding a fine crossfield kick from Luke Dorn.

Stunning

Westerman could not convert and although a Huby penalty kept Castleford's hopes of victory alive, Leeds roared back in stunning fashion.

First Smith scampered clear down the left flank after collecting Simon Worrall's pass and then Webb found the space to crash over. Smith failed to convert his own try but added the extras to Webb's and did likewise when Diskin emerged to crash under the posts before adding a penalty for this third goal of the evening.

That gave Leeds the cushion they needed as they held on to avenge their 38-20 defeat at the hands of the Tigers at the Jungle in March.