St Helens secured the League Leaders’ Shield, and with it a lucrative place in next year’s expanded World Club Challenge, by default courtesy of a huge French favour from the Catalan Dragons.
Saints had missed two chances to ensure they would finish the regular season at the top of the table for the first time since 2008, losing heavily at home to Warrington then gallantly to a late drop goal at Huddersfield on Friday night after their prop Alex Walmsley was sent off in the first half.
That handed Cas, who were quoted at 200-1 to win the Grand Final at the start of the season, the chance to become comfortably the most improbable League Leaders in Super League’s 19-season history.
But the Dragons are formidable opponents in their Perpignan lair, and even with nothing tangible to play for as they were already guaranteed to finish seventh and therefore go to Leeds in the first round of the play-offs next Saturday, they shattered Castleford’s dreams on a steamy September night in the south of France.
The Tigers seemed to struggle to cope with the conditions, making an unusually high number of errors and therefore spending too much time in energy-sapping defence. They cracked after an attritional opening half hour, and it was no surprise that the Catalan full-back, Morgan Escaré, made the breakthrough after supporting the powerful centre Vincent Duport.
Escaré added a brilliant second in first-half stoppage time, and a loose pass by Marc Sneyd then handed the Dragons the position for Zeb Taia to score a third try that Thomas Bosc converted for a 16-0 lead.
Cas responded through their tall right wing Kirk Dixon, with Sneyd curling over the conversion with his idiosyncratic goalkicking style. But their handling remained appalling and the Dragons stretched out of sight with tries from Ian Henderson and Elliott Whitehead.
The defeat means Castleford have slipped from second to fourth over the course of the final round of fixtures, still their best Super League finish and meaning they will stay alive in the play-offs even if they lose their qualifier on Friday. But they will have to travel again, to St Helens, leaving Wigan with home advantage on Thursday against Huddersfield in the other qualifying play-off.
This has been a suitably unpredictable climax to the tightest Super League season yet, and only the brave or foolhardy would predict the teams who will qualify for the Grand Final at Old Trafford on 11 October. There is a good argument that Leeds, despite finishing sixth after losing their last five league matches, remain the team to beat, with their vast playoff experience and the Challenge Cup already in the bag. But they will be playing sudden-death rugby from the start and first they must get past the Catalans, which on this evidence will be anything but a formality.
