Castleford Tigers and York Knights both bounced back from defeats the previous week with wins in Friday night’s Super League action.
Castleford eased to a 34-8 victory over Huddersfield to claim their first win of the season, leaving the Giants still looking for a point. Tom Weaver scored twice, while Liam Hood opened the scoring with his second try of the season and Darnell McIntosh — playing against his old club — added another. Huddersfield were reduced to 12 men when Taane Milne was sin-binned; from the resulting penalty George Lawler found space for Castleford’s third. Jacob Gagai finished a rare fluent Huddersfield attack before half-time to make it 16-4.
Weaver capitalised on a Daejarn Asi grubber to extend the lead, George Flanagan replied with his fourth try of the season for Huddersfield, but further tries from Weaver and debutant Ashton Golding — also facing his former team — sealed the win. Huddersfield tested Castleford’s goal-line defence late on but could not come back.
Huddersfield boss Luke Robinson was blunt afterwards: “We were rubbish, absolute rubbish… we just dropped the ball over and over and over again.” Castleford head coach Ryan Carr praised his side’s resilience: “They’re a team that never goes away… we knew we were going to be in for a fight for the full 80 minutes and that’s something I’m really pleased about.”
At the other fixture, Super League newcomers York Knights earned a surprise 17-16 away win over Hull FC, their second win in three weeks. David Nofoaluma scored twice on his York debut, the first finishing a flowing move in the corner. Hull hit back when Davy Litten powered through from a scrum play and Harvey Barron put the hosts 10-6 up at half-time.
A Hull error early in the second half gifted Nofoaluma his second try. Ben Jones-Bishop then went over in the corner to put York ahead, and Danny Richardson’s drop-goal extended the margin to seven. Lewis Martin scored late for Hull, but Hull suffered injuries to Barron and Aidan Sezer in a frustrating night for the home side.
York head coach Mark Applegarth reflected: “We’re just going one week at a time… We’ll back ourselves every day of the week. One of our main traits this year is showing up for one another and the togetherness.” Hull boss John Cartwright said his side “lost our way in the second half. They got a couple of tries, hit the lead and held on to it.”