Dragons tear apart Tigers

Castleford slumped to a sixth successive Super League defeat as they were beaten 46-26 to Catalan Dragons at the PROBIZ Coliseum.

Ryan Hudson, Nick Youngquest and Stuart Jones all scored tries on their farewell home appearances but it wasn't enough to prevent the Tigers being comfortably beaten, meaning they could still end up with the wooden spoon.

The Dragons were in no mood for sentiment as they cruised to victory, full-back Clint Greenshields and winger Damien Blanch both scoring hat-tricks.

The triumph is the Perpignan-based side's first on their travels for two months and means they reclaim fourth place in the table.

Tough times

In contrast, any the Tigers had of appearing in the play-offs in head coach Ian Millward's first season in charge ended long ago. Indeed, if Widnes defeat Wakefield later on Sunday, Castleford will be propping up the rest.

They trailed 40-12 after an hour but at least showed some fighting spirit in the final quarter, scoring three tries to add respectability to the scoreline.

There was also an impressive display from reigning Man of Steel Rangi Chase on only his second appearance in almost three months while hooker Daryl Clark showed some nice touches on his comeback from injury.

Setaimata Sa put centre Vincent Duport through a yawning gap in the Castleford defence to break the deadlock after seven minutes.

The Dragons then demonstrated their counter-attacking brilliance when second rower Louis Anderson picked up a loose ball 20 metres from his own line and combined with Daryl Millard, Greenshields and Scott Dureau to get Blanch over in the other corner for his first try.

Hudson kept the Tigers in touch when he won the race to Danny Orr's grubber kick and Jones took Chase's pass to stretch out for a try.

However, Castleford's cause was not helped when scrum-half Jamie Ellis went off with an arm injury midway through the first half.

Greenshields treble

In his absence Dureau picked out Sa with a kick, Greenshields raced over for his first and Blanch shrugged off Lee Mitchell's weak tackle to grab another.

Greenshields crossed twice in quick succession after the interval to complete his personal treble, Dureau taking his goal tally to six from seven attempts to put the French club out of sight.

At least the Tigers did roar back to give their fans something to cheer.

Orr and Hudson combined to get Youngquest over before a superb pass by Chase created a try for Grant Millington, who then turned provider for full-back Richard Owen to score the Tigers' fifth try four minutes from the end.

Orr failed with his last two conversion attempts and it was left to Blanch to have the final say, the former Wakefield winger sprinting down the touchline for his third of the afternoon, allowing Dureau to slot over his seventh goal.