Hull KR 70 Castleford Tigers 12: Four-try Hodgson reaps his rewards as Tigers crumble

Rovers, who saw prolific winger David Hodgson score four of their dozen tries yesterday, ensured they stayed in touch with the play-off places with their most authoritative display of the season.

They had been blown away inside the opening 20 minutes on their previous outing at Wigan but here they did the same to their woeful visitors.

Turgid Castleford were off the pace from the start and were never allowed to recover as playmakers Blake Green and Michael Dobson plus livewire hooker Josh Hodgson took full control on the back of some sterling work from Rovers’ forceful pack.

Shannon McDonnell added plenty of flair from full-back, scoring a hat-trick and adding assists for two more, all of which left coach Craig Sandercock purring.

“I’m very pleased as that’s the first time this year we’ve put in a full 80-minute performance,” he admitted.

“We really executed well and if we go set-for-set like that we back ourselves against any side.

“Generally speaking, our defence was much improved and I was really happy with our discipline.

“We’ve been giving away penalties late in the count but not (yesterday).

“The game plan was executed very solidly throughout and if we can do that we’re quietly confident we can put in performances.”

It is hard to know where to begin with Castleford’s state of disarray. Much had been made about where their creative talent would come from given captain Danny Orr was injured and fellow half-backs Rangi Chase and Ryan McGoldrick were suspended.

However, makeshift pairing Adam Milner and Brett Ferres were effectively redundant given Castleford had hardly any possession early on and it was the visitors’ defence which clearly needed addressing.

Hapless Tigers full-back Richard Owen was inexplicably bamboozled by Craig Hall’s standard kick ahead to gift McDonnell Rovers’ first try inside the third minute

The embarrassing gaffe was perhaps a sign of what was to come.

Hall then immediately pierced Castleford’s weak left side once more before Dobson’s long pass on the final tackle saw Kris Welham supply David Hodgson.

Green’s 40/20 ensured there was no let-up for the visitors as that set up position for McDonnell’s cut-out pass to leave Sam Latus another walk-in.

When Owen hung the restart into touch, it seemed Castleford’s afternoon could not get any worse.

Rovers did not make the most of that possession, though, Scott Taylor dropping a pass to finally give their fatigued opponents some respite.

It did not last long. Owen and his left-side defence were dozing again when Green dabbed a kick for McDonnell to sneak over for his second on 15 minutes and, soon after, captain Ben Galea showed great pace to break clear of Grant Millington for Hodgson to do likewise.

Millington was immediately subbed by Ian Millward but he must have wished he could replace the majority of his team.

When they did successfully manage to defend a set, Castleford quickly imploded as Owen gave an awful pass out of dummy half which Nathan Massey fumbled in front of his own posts.

Buoyant Rovers were willing to try anything, Green’s inventive reverse chip seeing McDonnell go in again only to be ruled out for offside but again the visitors wasted the possession, a clearly frustrated Kirk Dixon fumbling when he played the ball.

From there, Rovers added their sixth try, Joel Clinton charging close on the last tackle before squeezing out an off-load which led to Welham crossing.

Castleford did muster a try in the 36th minute – the first time they had ventured as far as Hull KR’s 20m – through Jordan Thompson for Dixon to convert.

However, Hodgson completed his hat-trick early in the second period from another sublime McDonnell pass before the creator stepped through for his own third.

Scott Murrell, on his return from injury, then sprinted clear to furnish Lincoln Withers with another and Sandercock had the rare luxury of being able to take off Green with 25 minutes still to go.

Murrell’s short pass saw Con Mika exploit another gaping hole to score a richly deserved try and, though Castleford did work a late effort for Josh Griffin, it was not long before Hall eased through more shambolic defence.

Hodgson got his fourth from Dobson’s stunning kick, the scrum-half’s 11th conversion bringing up the 70 mark.

To compound Castleford’s misery, their one player who did make some incisions – lively hooker Daryl Clark – suffered a serious knee injury which a beleaguered Millward says will leave him “out a long while”.

He offered no excuses for the dismal performance saying: “It was possibly the worst defensive display I’ve seen for a long time.

“It was unacceptable, not up to Super League standard.

“We were extremely poor and everyone was quite soft. It had nothing to do with missing the halves. I feel very sorry for the fans. They don’t need me to sugar coat this. We’ll be doing everything to turn this around but we’re averaging 30 points against and not getting the improvement we need.”

Hull KR: McDonnell; Latus, Hall, Welham, D Hodgson; Green, Dobson; Paea, J Hodgson, Taylor, Mika, Galea, Lovegrove. Substitutes: Murrell, Withers, O’Hara, Clinton.

Castleford: Owen; Youngquest, Thompson, Dixon, Griffin; Ferres, Milner; Massey, Hudson, Huby, Mitchell, Millington, Jones. Substitutes: Emmitt, Clark, Walker, Holmes.

Referee: J Child (Dewsbury).