After the excitement of the Championship Summer Bash it was Super League which again took centre stage with five round sixteen Bank Holiday Monday fixtures.
League leaders Castleford Tigers, on the back of a tough home win against Widnes Vikings, had a trip to second bottom Leigh Centurions who themselves stunned Hull FC with a great victory on Friday evening.
A win for Leigh would see them into tenth and above the Huddersfield Giants, and more importantly just two points behind Warrington Wolves in eighth. The maths were more simple for the Tigers, two points would see them back clear at the top of the pile.
After weathering an early Centurions onslaught it was the Tigers who opened the scoring on the quarter hour when Jesse Sene-Lefao put a kick through on the thirty, which was picked up and offloaded by Luke Gale back into the hands of Sene-Lefao who went the remining ten metres to score. Gale added the conversion to get the visitors off and running.
The second try came on twenty-three when Sene-Lefao got his second burrowing under the Leigh defenders off a Paul McShane pass to score by the left upright. Gale kicked the simple conversion for 12-0.
Eloi Pelissier had a try ruled out for Leigh on twenty-nine for an obstruction when he dove past team mate Antoni Maria who had just played the ball.
On thirty-two the Tigers extended their lead when Greg Eden was on the end of a scrappy passing move to take a Michael Shenton pass to dive in by the left corner flag. Eden added his second three minutes later, flying down the left wing off a Gale miss-out pass. This time Gale added the extras for a 22-0 lead, the game was slipping from Leigh.
Eden sealed his hat-trick on thirty-seven minutes (a five minute hat-trick) when Shenton drifted through the Leigh defence and found his winger in an acre of space to go in unopposed. Gale added the conversion for 28-0.
Ben Crooks was sin-binned on forty-seven for an illegal tackle on Matt Cook as the injured Cook was helped from the field. Within a minute Greg Eden picked up his fourth of the game, again he found himself at the end of a passing move to take a Shenton pass and score out wide. Gale failed to add the extras, hitting the left upright.
On fifty-eight the Tigers were in again thanks to a Ben Roberts reverse pass to Jake Webster who went through an enormous gap for a simple try. Gale added the conversion for 38-0 and it was just all too simple for the Yorkshiremen.
Leigh managed to thwart the Tigers for the remaining twenty-two minutes but it was a comprehensive victory for the top side in the competition who look almost unstoppable with the ball in hand. Daryl Powell will be delighted with the zero in the against column as his side go back two points clear at the top.
If the Centurions can take anything from the game it is that they contained the Tigers in the second half but they came back down to earth with a bump after last Fridays brilliant win.
Centurions: McNally, Dawson, Crooks (SB), Fleming, Brown, Reynolds, Drinkwater, Acton, Hood, Burr, Paterson, Vea, Stewart. Subs: Pelissier, Tickle, Maria, Hopkins.
Tigers: Hardaker, Minkin, Webster (T), Shenton, Eden (4T), Roberts, Gale (5G), Millington, McShane, Massey, Sene-Lefao (2T), McMeeken, Milner. Subs: Cook, Moors, Holmes, Larroyer.
Referee:Chris Kendall.
Half-Time:0-28.
Full-Time: 0-38.
Attendance: 5,905.
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