St. Helens 32

Castleford Tigers 32

By MIKE PARSONS

SLOPPY St. Helens will have to tighten up their defence if they are to make any impact in the Grand Final play-offs.

They carelessly twice let go of leads and conceded four tries in a similar 'charge over' manner from short distances.

To add to the disappointment Saints had two players put on report in separate incidents and scrum half Sean Long collected a bad ankle injury.

It all marred what should have been a wonderful return to the side for stand off Tommy Martyn.

He had missed the three previous games due to Achilles heel trouble but returned in fine shape with two tries in a man of the match display.

His vision, passing and finishing were well matched by his tactical kicking which had Cas in heaps of trouble from the start.

It was a remarkable first half in which Saints built up a 14-0 lead only to let it slip by way of a charge-over hat-trick of tries from Castleford's prop forward Dean Sampson.

But in the first 10 minutes Castleford could not even get out their own half due to intelligent kick-off tactics by Martyn.

Two penalty goals put Saints in front while Cas struggled to get a grip.

They powered further ahead when Long fed prop Brett Goldspink for a bulldozing drive over the line during which he scattered three defenders. Long's goal left Saints 10-0 ahead after only six minutes.

Sampson was put on report for a high tackle two minutes later and Long's boot made it 12-0.

The Tigers then found the way out of their own half and gave Saints a scare when centre Adrian Vowles beat Anthony Sullivan to a high kick but then dropped the ball in the process of touching down.

Long booted over his fourth penalty before Sampson charged over for the first of his hat-trick of tries.

They were all from close range power drives in the 26th, 32nd and 38th minutes. The latter effort was converted by stand off Danny Orr and came on the back of Saints back rower Paul Davidson being penalised and put on report by referee Kirkpatrick for allegedly head butting Vowles.

Sampson's hat-trick left the teams deadlocked at 14-14 at half-time.

Three minutes after the break, Francis Maloney spotted a huge gap in the Saints defence and sped in from 60 yards to put his side in the lead for the first time. Orr goaled.

Saints coach Shaun McRae brought on fans' favourite Vila Matautia to liven things up a bit. He did so with two bonecrunching drives that paved the way for Tommy Martyn to sell a dummy and touch down from 25 yards. Long goaled to level matters once more.

Cas hit back again in the 56th minute when scrum half Brad Davis put Vowles over in the corner, too far out for Orr to convert.

Saints immediately hit back through substitute prop Ian Pickavance and it was all square again.

An unclear incident which required the involvement of the referee and both touch judges resulted in Matautia being put on report but a scrum then awarded to St. Helens.

Cas were still complaining when Long fed Apollo Perelini on his inside and then the prop lobbed out a pass to Martyn who scooted home. Long's goal attempt went wide but Saints had regained the lead at 28-24.

After Martyn and Matautia were held up short, Long and Atcheson combined to put centre Paul Newlove over for an important four points. The 50th of his Super League career left Cas having to score twice.

With five minutes remaining and after Long had been caught off side in his own quarter, Gael Tallec forced his way over from close range. Davis added the goal to leave the Tigers just two points adrift.

The drama lasted until the final whistle. Saints were penalised for holding down prop Nathan Sykes 25 yards from their own line. Davis elected for a quick tap and darted a few yards before realising his mistake and stopping. He returned to the referee and pointed to the sticks for a goal attempt which the referee sanctioned.

Saints' players were furious and Karle Hammond was sin-binned for his dissent. Davis kicked the goal and the final hooter sounded.

It was a controversial ending but Saints should never have allowed themselves to have been in the position to get caught.

St. Helens: Paul Atcheson; Chris Smith, Damien Smith, Paul Newlove, Anthony Sullivan; Tommy Martyn, Sean Long; Apollo Perelini, Keiron Cunningham, Brett Goldspink, Paul Sculthorpe, Paul Davidson, Karle Hammond. Subs: Ian Pickavance, Vila Matautia, Tony Stewart, Paul Anderson.

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.