Healey inspires Castleford win

Castleford stunned St Helens with a magnificent 28-26 win at The Jungle.

There was little hint of the drama to come when Saints raced into a 10-0 lead with tries from Sean Hoppe and Peter Shiels. Castleford remained unfazed, however, and hit back with four tries in 16 minutes from Waine Pryce, Dale Fritz, the inspirational Mitch Healey and Adrian Vowles.

After the break, Saints piled on the pressure and, just as the ever-dangerous Keiron Cunningham appeared to have been stopped short, he reached out to plant the ball on the line for his side's third try, with Paul Sculthorpe kicking his second goal. The Yorkshiremen restored a 12-point lead with Lee Harland going over, before Kevin Iro cut the gap.

Stand-off Karl Pratt plugged the massive gap left by Leeds' inspirational captain Iestyn Harris as Leeds boosted their prospects of qualifying for the play-offs with a 36-18 home win over Halifax. With Harris ruled out for six weeks after surgery on his left wrist, Pratt was handed the job of playmaker.

And despite an elementary mistake that let in the Halifax centre Stuart Donlan for the second of his two first-half tries, Pratt was the catalyst as his side pulled clear. He burst through from 35 metres to spark a Leeds revival on the half hour and after his half-back partner Ryan Sheridan scored, Pratt struck a killer blow just before the break with his second try.