Rugby League: Trinity's forward march

Wakefield Trinity 11 Castleford Tigers 10

A DROP GOAL four minutes from time from their captain, Tony Kemp, continued Wakefield's barely believable sequence of four wins in a row yesterday.

Trinity had spurned one chance of a potentially match-winning single point when Jason Flowers' knock-on gave them scrum possession with time running out. The ball appeared to have been moved too deep and wide, but Kemp, only easing his way back into the team via the substitutes' bench after a back injury, lined it up calmly and added Castleford's scalp to those of St Helens, Huddersfield and Warrington over the past month.

"He's just a dictator when he's on the field," said his coach, Andy Kelly, of the Kiwi veteran. "He pushes the players around and makes sure the right decisions are made."

The drama was not over, as Cas had a couple of promising attacks thwarted by fumbles in the slippery conditions. Then, immediately after the final hooter, Brad Davis put over the drop kick that would, a couple of seconds earlier, have given them their fourth draw in seven games.

"Andy Kelly must have kissed a leprechaun, the luck he had out there today," said Castleford's coach, Stuart Raper, who also complained about the treatment of Danny Orr, especially by Kemp. He had to restrain his own injured captain, Adrian Vowles, from tackling Kemp in the dressing rooms after the game. Raper said: "He wanted to have him there and then. He was furious."

The intermittent downpours at Belle Vue brought out the handling errors as well as the golf umbrellas, but this was a thrilling match from the start.

Cas led through an early try from Lee Harland, but David March - one of the talented twins who have given Trinity such impetus this season - grabbed two opportunist efforts to give them the advantage at half- time.

Dean Sampson, captaining Castleford for the first time after more than 300 games for the club, powered over to equalise after 50 minutes and the rest of the game was a struggle for that tie-breaking moment.

Victory leaves Wakefield closer to the top five than to the relegation zone, which they were regarded as virtually certain to occupy.

"I would have settled for 12 points from 13 games at the start of the season," said Kelly with some understatement. "I wouldn't say we were safe yet, but we are getting close."

Wakefield Trinity: Kenward; Stott, Brunker, Hughes, Law; P March, Tomlinson; Stephenson, D March, Fields, Price, Fisher, Fawcett. Substitutes used: McDonald, Kemp, Watene, Poching.

Castleford Tigers: Flowers; Gay, Eagar, Rogers, Wells, Orr; Davis, Sykes; Hepi, Sampson, Tallek, Britz, Harland. Substitutes used: Pickering, Tonks, Hill, Ellison.

Referee: R Connolly (Wigan).