Such is the brilliance of Castleford these days it is difficult to pinpoint the exact moment this latest display of their trophy-winning credentials was over as a contest. There was one telling moment in the closing stages that struck a chord though.
As Greg Minikin scampered through the visitors’ defence for the Tigers’ 10th try – which perfectly illustrated the gulf in class between the sides – the hefty travelling contingent from St Helens were torn between applauding the panache of their opponents and booing their own side.
That, in essence, is what Castleford can make you feel like if you are the opposition. They tear you apart and break your heart but, by the end, you cannot help but raise a wry smile at how this small part of West Yorkshire is refining the standards of rugby league.
Here, their passage into the last eight of the Challenge Cup was remarkably straightforward. For half an hour, the home side were tested by St Helens but after that it was one-way traffic of the highest quality. “Once we got on the front foot, we blew them away,” said the Castleford coach, Daryl Powell. He was not wrong.
The level of their attacking performances made the Tigers an obvious choice for the BBC to pick for live television coverage and they will be impossible to ignore in the quarter-finals. Powell spoke this week of how this group would be far better equipped to deal with a Wembley final than three years ago, when they buckled under the pressure against Leeds. They now stand two victories away from putting Powell’s theory to the test.
Such was the class of Castleford, however, it was perhaps easy to overlook just how poor St Helens were. It is unheard of for one of Super League’s powerhouses for the past two decades to be out of contention for trophies before summer has arrived and quite what their coach in waiting, Justin Holbrook, made of this ugly afternoon as he prepares to take charge next week is anyone’s guess.
“On behalf of the coaching staff I want to apologise to the fans,” said the St Helens interim coach, Jamahl Lolesi. “Embarrassing would be a good way to explain it.”
The game was finely poised after 30 minutes with the Tigers ahead by six points, but what followed next was mesmerising. A remarkable 10-minute period yielded four tries and 21 points as the hosts killed the game as a contest to lead 31-4 at the break. Mercilessly, they would not stop there.
There were four more tries in the second half, including a 19-minute hat-trick for Super League’s top try-scorer Greg Eden.
Minikin’s try broke the 50-point barrier – Castleford have reached a half-century at home four times this season – but it was the game’s final try, by St Helens’ Luke Douglas inspiring ironic applause from all four sides of the stadium, which underlined the different journey these two sides find themselves on.
