Castleford Tigers 38 Leeds Rhinos 20

Friday 2nd March 2008, The Jungle.

Leeds Rhinos walked out onto the field at 'The Jungle' today with 3 World class players missing - Danny McGuire and Clinton Toopi were both out through injury picked up as the Rhinos were crowned World Champs whilst Jamie Peacock was rested ahead of the busy Easter period. This meant it was a chance for Jordan Tansey and Ashley Gibson to impress the new boss, Brian McLennan. And Luke Burgess, brother of Bulls player Sam Burgess, made his debut for Leeds.

The first try came from Scott Donald on the 17 minute mark after a brilliant set move out to the wing straight from the scrum made an opening for the speedy Scott, who ran 80 meters across the field to open the scoring and go over the whitewash on the wing. Sinfield added the extras and the Rhinos were away.

After the opening exchanges of the game had been tough for both sides, the Tigers now had their chance to score - and they took it - sadly only 3 minutes after Donald's try. A mix up between the winger and fullback (Scott Donald and Brent Webb) allowed on form Westerman to pick up a bouncing ball and knock past Matt Diskin to score. The try scorer failed to convert his own try, so Leeds were still ahead.

Just before the 30 minute mark, Cas were in again. Lee Smith caught a high kick on the last and was forced into touch. From the resulting scrum, Donlan went over the line on the right hand side. Westerman couldn't find the boot again, but from this moment on, the Rhinos never got back in the lead. The score was 8-6 to Cas

Only about 3 minutes later and the home side were in again! A grubber kick on the final tackle was collected by Dorn who just found his way to the line. Westerman added the extras though this time and the best club side in the World led into the tunnel at half time finding themselves 14-6 behind Super League's rock bottom club.

Leeds though still had a chance of getting back in this game, but instead they allowed a try to Cas in the opening minute of the second half - not what you want to do if the are 14-6 down at half time and want to get back in the game. Shenton collected the ball and just strolled past Senior and ran nearly the full length of the pitch to go over the try line. Westerman failed to convert once more.

It was only 4 minutes later and when we thought it couldnt get any worse, it did. Keith Senior flopped on a player, and from the resulting penalty Castleford moved down field before passing the ball to Shenton who scored his second try in 4 minutes. Westerman slotted the extras in front of the sticks. Cas were winning the World Club Champions 24-6.

Leeds at least restored some pride when Senior passed inside to Donald straight from the scrum after a Tigers knock on on 48 minutes, but Sinny couldn't add those all important 2.

Ali made some good ground before passing to Scott Donald who went over the line for his hat-trick on 55 minutes. The gap was narrowed down to ten even though it was unlike Sinfield, he missed the conversion attempt again to make the score 24-14.

The Leeds sliding defence wasn't good enough 6 minutes later as McGoldrick managed to get himself out of 3 Rhinos tackles. Westerman got the 2 points and the score was now 30-14 at the Jungle.

Leeds almost reduced the defecit to 10 again on 69 minutes but the video ref ruled that JJB stole the ball in the tackle when there were 3 Rhinos players involved. Although looking at it again on Sky Sports there may be a possibility that he had the ball before the other Leeds players were involved - but no complaints, there was no way back for the Champions now.

10 minutes before the final hooter and 'Classy Cas' added more points to the scoreboard as Westerman kicked a penalty. Leeds did get a try back before the end of the game as Webb kicked a superb grubber which Tansey found before going over the line. Kev added the 2 on offer.

In the last 30 seconds of a game to remember for Castleford supporters, Dorn scored and Westerman converted to seal a game which will be rememberd for many years to come for Cas fans.

Well, no complaints at all here. The best side won and that's about all you can say here. Leeds were without the World class players - McGuire, Toopi and Peacock were all out and don't forget - although the players will not like to admit it, a lot of them were probably carrying minor injuries and knocks and were probably all tired after the mamoth performance they all put in last week. And lets not blame it all on last week: to be frank a few players tonight were not up to scratch and probably do need to ask themselves if they were giving their all for the Rhinos last night.

Also, well done to Luke Burgess who made a great debut on Friday, and seems to have a huge amount of potential.

Next up for the Rhinos is Harlequins at the Headingley Carnegie. All we can do now is sit and wait for Leeds to totally hammer Quins next week...hopefully!

Just a quick update on the World Club Challenge Match Gallery: It will be available on the site in a few days time and it has took over a week already because the images do not seem to be upscaling to a viewable size.

Referee: Phil Bentham

Video Referee: