Hull KR 34-16 Castleford Tigers: Rovers strengthen grip on Super League top-six with victory

Rhys Kennedy was among the tries for Hull KR as they defeated Castleford on Friday

Hull KR strengthened their grip on a top-six spot in the Betfred Super League with a 34-16 win over strugglers Castleford at Craven Park.

Rovers scored six tries to the visitors' three as they backed up their Challenge Cup semi-final win over Wigan with a business-like victory over the Tigers.

While Rovers can go to Wigan next week in a relaxed frame of mind ahead of their Wembley showdown with Leigh, the 11th-placed Tigers are once again left nervous about their Super League status.

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Rovers grabbed the lead with 14 minutes gone as Tom Opacic dotted down in the right corner after they had kept the ball alive across the field through Jez Litten's kick, which the visitors knocked on.

Brad Schneider was on hand to collect and feed Opacic, who gave his side the lead despite the best efforts of the visitors' defence.

Rovers soon doubled their lead thanks to a fine sniping run by Mikey Lewis. Litten's pass to Rhys Kennedy saw the prop go over near the posts to give Rowan Milnes a simple conversion for a 10-0 lead at the midway point of the first half.

Rovers made it three tries five minutes later as Shaun Kenny-Dowall's offload found Lewis and he saw Kane Linnett in support for another easy score which Milnes improved.

Castleford were back in the game with 11 minutes left in the half as Will Tate scored from an offload close in and Riley Dean's kick reduced the arrears to 10 points.

Ethan Ryan was denied a try down the right for a forward pass and Castleford claimed their second score as full-back Jack Broadbent found a gap to dive over to make the score 16-10 to Rovers at the break.

The home side added try number four two minutes after the restart as a fine run by Matt Parcell carved open the Tigers defence to set up Elliot Minchella and Milnes pushed the gap out to 12.

James Batchelor powered his way forward before reaching to touch down to become the fifth home try scorer and Milnes' fourth conversion made it 28-10.

Broadbent was then shown a yellow card as he prevented Matty Storton from playing the ball close to the posts after stopping his fine run. Milnes kicked the penalty to stretch the lead.

Rovers made the player advantage pay as Schneider looped a pass to Ryan wide on the right for their sixth try, with a little under 20 minutes remaining.

With eight minutes to go, Greg Eden's try in the left corner and Dean's tricky kick from out wide were of little consolation for Castleford as the home side secured the Roger Millward Trophy.