A win of any description would be enough to ensure that St Helens ended round two at the top of Super League, but stood in their way was Danny McGuire’s Castleford Tigers who were themselves looking to get the first points of their 2025 campaign.

The Tigers were given a twenty point start on the handicap coupon by the bookies who couldn’t see anything other than a Saints win based on their commanding demolition of Salford last weekend coupled with a low expectation of the Tigers despite their golden point loss to the much-fancied Robins last time out.

Castleford needed to stop Saints getting on a roll, because if the did then the likelihood was that they would be on the end of a hiding.

Another Super League versus Championship Challenge Cup tie pitted the Bradford Bulls against near neighbours Castleford Tigers in a third-round match-up which saw Danny McGuires visitors as favourites to overcome Brian Noble’s charges.

It was a heavily experienced Bulls side, and one which the BBC had selected to broadcast indicating that they believed that it was the most likely to be a giant-killing, the pitch at Odsal being a leveller for what promised to be a tremendous cup tie.

A place in the fourth round awaited, with both sides and coaches were eager to progress, the Bradford crowd swelled by a decent contingent from Castleford.

If there was a trophy for most improved side throughout the 2024 season then it would already be safely on display in the Leigh Leopards trophy cabinet as the continued their increasingly likely drive for a top six finish with a trip to struggling Castleford Tigers, their eyes firmly on fourth spot in the table.

Leigh have only lost two games in the last two months and both of those were to defending Champions, the Wigan Warriors, after losing their opening three fixtures of the season and looking like they would be struggling at the bottom with London, Hull and tonight’s opponents Castleford.

The season had been over for weeks for the hosts and they were simply playing for pride and the possibility of finishing the season in ninth place.

While the Castleford Tigers are safely away from being in any danger of picking up the 2024 wooden spoon, they have only pride to play for in their remaining four games as they are almost certain to end the season in tenth spot after a difficult start which has seem them manage just six wins in their fourteen outings.

Hull FC, on the other hand, are still in danger of the ignominy of finishing the season in bottom spot and ending round twenty-seven below last season’s promoted Championship side the London Broncos who had failed to recruit pre-season in the full knowledge that the IMG grading system would mean that they would be relegated regardless of how they performed on the field in 2024.

The crowd entered the MKM Stadium more in hope than expectation of a decent game.

It was third bottom against third top as the Robins of Hull KR travelled to West Yorkshire to take on a Castleford Tigers side looking for their fourth victory in a disappointing season while a win for the visitors would lift them level on points with the two sides above them at the top of the table.

The bookies had given the Tigers a twelve-point start on the coupon with all expectations pre-game being for a decent win for the side from East Hull but most thought it unlikely that they would get enough points to boost their points difference to take them to the top of the table.

Hull KR were pretty in pink as a good crowd made it into the Jungle to cheer on their sides.

The West Yorkshire derby had it all to play for as Castleford Tigers travelled the short distance to Headingley to take on the arch enemy the Leeds Rhinos as both sides desperately needed the two points on offer.

The visitors couldn’t improve their league position with a win but could increase the gap between themselves and the bottom two club while the Rhinos knew that a win by more than twelve points would lift them into the top six, at least for the next twenty hours.

The Rhinos were handicapped by ten on the coupon, the bookies thinking that it would be a Rhinos win but not necessarily a convincing one.

Two sides from the wrong end if the 2024 Super League table met in the final game of round ten as the Castleford Tigers went to Leigh Leopards with both sides looking for their third win of the season to cut adrift the pointless London Broncos in last place.

The bookies couldn’t see anything other than a win for the Leopards, giving the visitors a sixteen-point start in the coupon for the first meeting between the two strugglers, mostly in recognition of the way that Leigh demolished the Catalans Dragons last time out just eight days ago.

When the draw was made for the quarter final of the 2024 Challenge Cup, most supporters would have been willing for their side to be drawn out against a struggling Castleford Tigers side who have only picked up one league win so far this season, in the end that lucky side was the Wigan Warriors.

Many pundits, and the bookies, believed that this was as good as a bye for the Warriors and with them being handicapped by thirty points on the coupon, they were a ‘shoe in’ for the semi-finals and probably the side that the others would look to avoid one game out from Wembley.

The concept of a Tigers win was unthinkable for all except the Castleford coach Craig Lingard and his trusted seventeen players playing for the pride in their jersey.