Hull KR beat Cas to move within two points of top

Hull KR beat Castleford for their fifth successive Super League win to move two points behind leaders Warrington.

Jacob Miller’s try, converted by Paul McShane, gave Tigers a half-time lead.

Corey Hall scored his first Rovers try to level and, after Miller replied with a drop-goal, Matt Parcell put Hull KR ahead for the first time in the game – and into a lead they did not squander.

After a spell in interim charge of Castleford, Last signed a two-and-a-half-year contract to become Lee Radford’s long-term successor on Tuesday.

His side’s bright start was rewarded when Miller reacted quickest to his own high kick being spilled into open space and the former Wakefield half-back crossed unopposed under the posts.

Hull KR were frustrated in their attempts to reply before half-time, with the video referee deeming Ryan Hall had not grounded a grubber kick cleanly over the line and Cas holding firm while Liam Watts was in the sin bin.

But Willie Peters’ side were back level after the interval when they worked the ball from right to left and Hall, signed from Wakefield in March, threw a dummy out wide before touching down.

Having forged narrowly ahead once more thanks to the right boot of Miller, Castleford made a costly error that led to the match-winning score.

The hosts allowed the resulting kick-off to bounce into touch, giving Rovers crucial field position, and hooker Parcell took full advantage to dive over from dummy-half.

Castleford head coach Andy Last told BBC Radio Leeds:

“A tale of two halves from a performance point of view for me. I’m really pleased with what we did in the first half, but in the second half we just couldn’t maintain the way that we’d played in the first half.

“It was a nip-and-tuck game. The team made the decision to take the one-pointer about the 60-minute mark, I didn’t think there would be much between the two teams and both defences were probably on top.

“And then we come up with the error off the kick-off. Two senior players don’t deal with it, it goes into touch and the work we’ve done to get ourselves in front by a point for 20 minutes is undone in the space of 30 seconds.”

Hull KR head coach Willie Peters told BBC Radio Humberside:

“In the first half I thought Cas beat us in pretty much every area. It was only probably due to a few errors they had – at 6-0 [behind] we went in happy with that because I thought they were definitely the better team in the first half.

“What I was most pleased about was how we adjusted and went back to being the team that we are.

“To come here and win is always difficult, no matter what. They’re a tough, gritty team and we showed that tonight too.”

Castleford: Eden; Faraimo, Mellor, Turner, Fonua; Broadbent, Miller; Lawler, McShane, Griffin, Milner, Edwards, Westerman.

Interchanges: Matagi, Hall, Watts, Tate.

Sin bin: Watts (26)

Hull KR: Coote; Kenny-Dowall, Opacic, C Hall, R Hall; Lewis, Abdull; Kennedy, Parcell, King, Batchelor, Linnett, Minchella.

Interchanges: Litten, Storton, Hadley, Luckley.

Referee: Marcus Griffiths