Tigers start season with dominant win

v BYE

Castleford Tigers got their 2017 Betfred Super League season off to the best possible start with a dominant 44-16 victory over newly-promoted Leigh Centurions. 

Doubles from Luke Gale and Greg Minikin, along with tries from Junior Moors and debutants Greg Eden and Jesse Sene-Lefao sealed the points for the Tigers in what turned out to be a fantastic Friday night clash.

The league opener was always likely to be a fiery affair, and the opening portion of the game certainly delivered. It took just one minute for tempers to flare and a scuffle to break out, with both sides clearly full of excitement due to the season's arrival.

On their return to the top flight, Leigh threatened the Tigers line early on in the piece, but were unable to barge their way over thanks to some exceptional defence from Castleford.

Instead, it was the hosts who broke the early deadlock. After applying some pressure on the Leigh line, Grant Millington put in Luke Gale with a trademark offload to put the Tigers on the board for the first time in 2017.

Five minutes later, Mike McMeeken produced a miraculous offload to give Millington another chance to terrorize the Leigh defence, which he took with both hands, leaving a trail of Centurions in his wake before assisting Jesse Sene-Lefao for his debut try.

Greg Minikin was next on the board for Castleford, the beneficiary of a huge overlap on the right edge. Despite the best efforts of ex-Tiger Ryan Hampshire, there was no stopping the winger putting the Tigers three scores ahead.

England international Gale, who was immaculate with the boot all evening, then lashed over a penalty from twenty yards out before Greg Minikin put the icing on a fantastic first half for the home side, once again utilising the right flank after some great footwork from Jake Webster. The Tigers went in to the sheds 26 points to the good.

Castleford continued their dominance after the break with Junior Moors bulldozing his way over the Leigh line for his first try of the campaign, but the Centurions hit back soon after through Hampshire - finally, making their mark on the scoreboard. However, Martin Ridyard failed to add the extras.

Thanks in part to the increasingly cold conditions, both sides found the going tough in the second period and struggled to keep ball in hand long enough to kick on.

It was going to take a massive error, somewhere on the field, to bring about the next points. Luckily for the Tigers, Hampshire came up with it.

Unable to collect a towering bomb from Gale, the Leigh full-back put the ball to ground and Castleford's number seven - after some friendly competition with Greg Eden - pounced on it for his second of the evening.

Eden, on his second debut for the Tigers, didn't have to wait long for his try however. Just moments later, the former Brisbane man dived over the line after yet more expansive play from Daryl Powell's charges.

To their credit, the Centurions managed to pick themselves up for a late revival and bagged tries through Castleford-born winger Matty Dawson and Danny Tickle, but the result was never really in any doubt thanks to the lead the Tigers had forged.

Castleford ended the evening with a late flourish, and looked to have brought up the fifty, but Greg Eden's diving effort was chalked off by the video referee.

Nevertheless, the hosts held on for a huge victory over the Centurions and grabbed their first two points of the 2017 Betfred Super League campaign.

This article originally appeared on CastlefordTigers.com.