Broncos celebrate return to Valley

Castleford and London Broncos collected their first points of the season yesterday while Halifax made it two wins out of two at the expense of Wakefield.

Castleford produced a fine second-half display to defeat Salford 22-16 . The Tigers led 8-0 after nine minutes with tries from the centre Logan Campbell and the hooker Aaron Raper, but Martin Offiah's fourth try of the season brought the Reds back into the game and they drew level in the second half when Darren Brown, Paul Southern and Gary Broadbent combined to send over the Australian centre, Kris Tassell.

Castleford regained the initiative on the hour when Adrian Vowles forced his way over and then Brad Davis made the points safe when he skipped round a tackle to touch down.

London Broncos celebrated their return to The Valley after a three-year absence with a 34-18 victory over Huddersfield-Sheffield. The visitors went in front when Martin Gleeson scored a third try early in the second half but 22 unanswered points in the final 20 minutes brought John Monie his first Super League win as the Broncos coach.

A 20-point haul from Martin Pearson helped Halifax to a 40-24 victory at Wakefield. The Blue Sox raced into a 24-2 lead thanks to tries from Ollie Marns, Daryl Cardiss, Paul Rowley and Andrew Dunemann, all goaled by Pearson, but the Wildcats responded through Warren Jowitt and Gary Price and the centre Adam Hughes before half-time.

Steve McNamara brought the scores level early in the second half with his fourth goal but Pearson struck a decisive blow when he broke out of several tackles to go in for a try and then Martin Moana grabbed a sixth try just before the end and Pearson kicked his eighth goal.

Leigh showed no signs of missing Ian Millward as they beat Doncaster 22-6 to stay at the top of the Ford Northern Premiership. Millward left last week to take over as coach at St Helens and Mick Higham, Craig Dean and Simon Baldwin all touched down in the second half to give the hosts their seventh successive league victory.

Dewsbury continued their fine start to the season when they became the first team to win at Boundary Park with a 14-12 win over Oldham. The visitors went into the break ahead through a Richard Baker try, but Oldham took the lead early in the second half with a try by David Gibbons which Pat Rich converted, only for Sean Richardson and Adrian Flynn to hand the advantage back to the Rams. Oldham ensured a thrilling finale when Joey Hayes scored a try from halfway and Rich then cut the deficit to two points, but the Rams held on to stay level with Leigh.

Hull KR made it three wins in a row to stay one point off the leaders with a comprehensive 54-16 win over Swinton, with Bob Everitt and Whetu Taewa scoring twice and Mark Hewitt kicking nine conversions.

Featherstone Rovers extended their winning sequence to seven matches and are also now just one point off the leading pair after a 42-25 win over Workington Town.