Castleford fightback leaves McRae fuming

Castleford 26 Hull 26

A successful conversion from Wayne Bartrim with the last kick of the game earned Castleford a dramatic draw that they barely deserved on the opening 70 minutes of play yesterday.

The Tigers trailed by 18 points with little over 10 minutes remaining of a contest dominated by Hull. But a trio of late tries – including Damian Gibson's last-minute effort – gave the Australian Bartrim the opportunity to level the scores with an angled conversion. He kept his nerve, leaving the Hull coach, Shaun McRae, fuming at his side's lacklustre showing in the closing stages.

"A lot of what I said to the players isn't printable," McRae lamented. "When you totally dominate a game for the first three quarters and lead 26-8 you deserve to win. A good side would have won the game."

Hull were handed a further blow with the news that the wing Matt Crowther could miss the remainder of the season after he suffered a broken leg in the second half.

Hull had gone into the break 14-8 ahead and victory looked almost assured when Richard Barnett found the line four minutes after the restart and Colin Best added his name to the scoresheet on 59 minutes.

But then followed the late Castleford onslaught with Danny Orr adding another try to his earlier success. Bartrim and Michael Eagar closed the gap before Gibson went over with less than a minute to go.

Castleford: Gibson; Pryce, Mellor, Johnson, Rogers; Orr, Healey; Sykes, Bartrim, Lynch, Harland, Fritz, Hudson. Substitutes used: Jackson, Eagar, Blakeway, Saxton.

Hull: Prescott; Best, Barnett, Kohe-Love, Crowther; Cooke, Horne; Greenhill, Last, King, Ryan, Maher, Chester. Substitutes used: Treister, Craven, Carvell, Yeaman.

Referee: R Connolly (Wigan).