One final embarrassment for Castleford Tigers as sorry season ends with defeat to 12-man Huddersfield Giants

Not for the first time they were well beaten by 12-man opponents as they went down to a 48-16 defeat despite their hosts having Fenton Rogers sent-off after 35 minutes and they were leapfrogged in the table by the Giants to finish second from bottom.

It remains to be seen how that affects their grading for a Super League place for next year, but it has not done them any favours.

If it was mostly pride to play for in the last game it was Huddersfield who showed it in their last home appearance at the Accu Stadium before they go to ground share with Dewsbury Rams next year.

While criticism could not be thrown at some of Castleford players for their performance as their efforts prevented an even bigger loss, there were others who looked to be just going through the motions and perhaps no wonder with yet another rebuild about to take place with a lot of this team leaving now.

Their centenary season, which started with so much promise, has ended as one big mess with lessons clearly to be learned.

The recruitment has been far more miss than hit and has to be substantially better for next season if they are to avoid another battle to avoid bottom.

While they were well beaten in the end the Tigers were a little unlucky at times in the first half at the Accu Stadium and were not helped by some strange refereeing decisions.

They should have scored first when a smart move gave Daniel Sarbah a chance to attack the line, but the young winger was unable to finish as he put a foot in touch.

And wouldn’t you just know it? Two minutes later from their first chance the hosts showed how to finish with Taane Milne breaking out of a weak tackle to score. Tui Lolohea kicked the first of seven goals to make it 6-0.

Castleford’s response was good as they came close when Krystian Mapapalangi made a break down the flank and kicked ahead only for the ball to be booted to safety.

From the next set Liam Hood came up with a determined run to get over the line and Cas deservedly had their first points on the board, with Ben McNamara – who completed his move to the club last week – converting.

But Huddersfield were gifted with a second try as a generous penalty for offside turned into a second home score, Tristan Powell benefiting from more weak defending.

It was from another tough decision that the Giants scored again when Phoenix Laula Togaga’e knocked on after appearing to be tackled to the head as he went down to gather a kick through. That did not excuse more poor defence work as Connor Wrench went over untouched after an alarming defensive gap was found.

The most strange piece of refereeing came when Tara Jones somehow failed to see a blatant elbow to the head of Tyler Dupree by Rogers as he looked to carry the ball out of his own 20.

Several plays later Dupree had to go off for a HIA and out of the blue Jones, on the advice of video referee Marcus Griffiths, produced a red card for the home player. But there was no penalty for Cas and instead of attacking close to the Huddersfield line as they should have been they were defending their own – and doing it badly again with Jacob Gagai racing over.

At 24-6 at half-time there was a mountain to climb for the Tigers, but they briefly looked to be capable to tackling it as Daejarn Asi – in his last game before he leaves the club – produced a smart run to score a try converted by McNamara.

The next chances fell to the hosts, but two excellent pieces of defending by Louis Senior prevented tries near his own line.

And it looked to have paid off when Dupree burst for the line only to lose the ball as he aimed to get it down over the line.

This proved to be the Tigers’ last chance to make a real game of it as they soon fell further behind with Lolohea kicking a penalty to nudge the Giants more than two scores ahead and the home team then running away with the game.

Another of all too familiar collapses followed as Cas became too desperate with the ball and made error after error, inviting pressure which led to tries for Zac Woolford, Gagai and Lewis Jagger.

They did manage a consolation through Jordan Lane after Sarbah had made an exciting long range break but did not quite have the pace to finish it off.

But probably fittingly it was Huddersfield who had the last word when Milne went over. With this Castleford’s season to forget was over.