Castleford Tigers 16 Leeds Rhinos 14: Result wins over coach Radford but display disappoints
CASTLEFORD TIGERS boss Lee Radford was much happier with the result than his side’s performance following the 16-14 derby win over Leeds Rhinos.
It was Tigers’ third-successive victory in Betfred Super League, just three days after a 34-4 win at their other near-neighbours Wakefield Trinity.
Radford described it as “an awful game to watch”, but reflected: “In a strange way, the messiness of what we produced probably makes the win at the end a bit more gratifying.”
He said: “I thought we’d lost that game four times over, the amount of opportunities we gave them, but it had an Easter Monday feel to it.
“The intensity of the game, decision-making and skill and execution were all really slack, but we defended well - I thought that was a positive.
“They got a try from a kick and the last one was a disappointing one to concede, but it was a four-day-turnaround performance.”
Radford denied his team became complacent after taking an 8-0 lead inside 20 minutes, but felt Rhinos were revived by a try on the last play of the first half.
“We go in 8-0 at half-time and we’d be in a lot better place,” he said.
“We went in at half-time and we were winning, we knew it would be a flat performance and you have to try and manufacture some energy from somewhere.
“I felt we did that defensively and came up with a special play, Liam Watts’ try, to kill it off.”
Tigers face leaders and defending champions St Helens at the Jungle on Friday and Radford knows a much-improved performance will be needed.
Radford said: “To get the result is big, particularly at this time of year. We are teetering on the edge of the [top] six now, we are there or thereabouts, but we have to sharpen our focus for Friday night because that is the acid test.
“We have got to be better, but - no disrespect - playing the best team in the comp’ should bring that out of you because, if you don’t get it right, it can go wrong for you real quick.”