Skipton 14 Castleford 34

TWO second-half tries from centre Hamish Munro and number eight Harry McEneaney were not enough for Skipton as they played catch up after trailing 17-0 at half-time.

Basking in the late summer sunshine, Sandylands provided ideal conditions as Skipton played hosts to Castleford for the opening match of their Yorkshire Three campaign.

An early penalty to Castleford gave the visitors a three-point advantage but two-successive scrums against the head to Skipton gave the home crowd confidence that Skipton's forward dominance would win the day. It was not to be.

Against the run of play, a knock down at the maul and a break away by the Castleford backs enabled the visitors to stretch their lead to ten points with a converted try.

A second followed shortly from the visitors' explosive outside centre and Skipton were 17 points adrift.

Determined and ferocious forward play took the home side up to Castleford's line but a knock-on right on half-time ended the play with no points forthcoming for Skipton.

The home side opened the second half well with excellent forward work from McEneaney and flanker Charlie Brown, coupled with incisive running from full back Jack McLeod but another break-away try by Castleford pinned Skipton back again.

New coach Craig Bartlett made some changes, bringing Luke Daniel on for winger Josh Smith and prop Ryan Binner on for Luke Currie.

The Skipton forwards again drove down field and opted for the scrum from a penalty five yards out. Castleford cleared and a fourth break away try followed from an unlucky contested catch by centre Hamish Munro.

Munro made up for it minutes later with an excellent break by Daniel putting him clear for Skipton's opening try under the posts. Stand-off Jonathan Kulik added the extra points.

A penalty to Castleford for Skipton not releasing added to the home side's woe and stretched the visitors' lead to 34-7.

A quickly-taken penalty by Skipton prop Chris Wright gave the home side good field position.

A second penalty was put into the corner and the forward drive from the line-out put McEneaney over for Skipton's second try. Kulik added the extra points on the stroke of full-time to round off a disappointing opening afternoon for Skipton.