Castleford Tigers fail to roar in thrashing by table topping Hull KR

Danny McGuire’s men came into the game hoping to cause an upset after beating the other Hull team in their previous game, but a victory was never on the cards as they found themselves under pressure from the first minute and went on to lose 48-0.

They were unlucky to lose to the Robins in round one when only a golden point drop-goal divided the teams. However, the visitors showed how much they have improved since then and how confident they now feel with the way they blew Cas away with nine unanswered tries, including two from Jack Broadbent who the Tigers allowed to leave.

Using the previous encounter as motivation to do a better job this time, Rovers swarmed all over their hosts from the kick-off.

They were helped by getting all the early decisions and on the back of two dubious six-agains they were 12-0 up in the first 10 minutes with Broadbent and Noah Booth both going over for tries converted by Arthur Mourgue.

Cas rarely looked like hitting back, aside from forcing a goalline drop-out, and were spending most of their time keeping their opponents out. They failed to do so in the 25th minute when Tom Davies went over from Mourgue's pass.

Another score had been chalked off after Mikey Lewis' effort given by on-field referee Liam Moore was successfully overturned by a captain's challenge after it was clear that the ball had been illegally stripped from Joe Westerman.

To their credit, the Tigers stuck to their task, but it was 20-0 at half-time as Mourgue crossed the line for KR’s fourth try.

Castleford’s best spell of the game early in the second half when they came the closest they were to come to a try.

Innes Senior was freed on the left by some enterprising play in the Cas half and went on a fantastic run, brushing off several Rovers players. When he handed off to the supporting Zac Cini it seemed a try was certain, but the Australian lost the ball over the line in the act of grounding it.

With that went the Tigers’ hopes of fighting back. Soon after Lewis and Broadbent combined to send Jai Whitbread over.

Booth then claimed his second try after Josh Simm could not deal with a high kick when put under pressure.

Davies sent Peta Hiku over and the floodgates were opening with the Tigers’ earlier spirit now disappearing.

There were further tries following kicks as Davies went over after Cini dropped a high bomb and Broadbent leaped well to get to Lewis’ well judged punt to complete his successful night against his old team.

It was an unlucky night for Cini who was overworked in his part-time full-back role and showed up well despite this, only for his two mistakes to cost points at either end.

This was the fifth time that Rovers have prevented opponents from scoring in the league this season while for Cas it was an 11th league defeat in 15 matches this season.