Saints 36 Castleford Tigers 6

A MOUTHWATERING trip to tackle Bradford Bulls at Old Trafford's Theatre of Dreams on Saturday was realised for slick-handling, six-try Saints after this highly professional performance.

And one player in particular stole the show - scrum-half Sean Long!

For, despite Ellery Hanley's insistence that he was out for the season, 'Longy' returned after a five-week absence due to a shoulder injury to notch two tries and five goals and earn the man-of-the-match award, although he was on the field just 44 minutes.

Such was his contribution to this final eliminator that when he emerged to rapturous applause from the substitutes bench Saints trailed 6-4 and, when Sean left to similar acclaim, skipper Chris Joynt and his men were home-and-dry in leading 30-6.

Revelations by chairman Morris that Long and teammate Keiron Cunningham had committed themselves to Saints until 2003 boosted both team and supporters into the right frame of mind to atone for last week's shocker at Bradford and to cage the Tigers.

Conquerors of Wigan and Leeds in the play-offs, a Castleford team defeated 42-14 at Knowsley Road in August enjoyed massive support and, spurred by skipper Adrian Vowles and Dean Sampson remained in contention in being only 12-8 in arrears at half-time, before Saints ultimately proved a bridge too far.

Further analysis of Saints' determination to make a first Grand Final appearance was underlined by the fact, after Cas scored their points in the 14th minute, the Knowsley Road squad then notched 32 without reply, a statistic sure to delight coach Hanley after recent criticism of leaky defence.

In addition to the 'Boy's Own' resurgence of Long, captain courageous Chris Joynt, rock-like Paul Atcheson, Exocet missile Freddie Tuilagi, creative Paul Sculthorpe and Cunningham, along with grafting Apollo Perelini and Julian O'Neill also took the eye.

Damp conditions and a cup-tie atmosphere greeted the teams with Saints away to a flyer when, after Darren Rogers knocked on, Sculthorpe and Kevin Iro sent Anthony Sullivan hurtling through Danny Orr's tackle to score in the corner, but Tommy Martyn could not convert.

Joynt maintained Saints' opening onslaught in sending Nickle away, only for Richard Gay to save Castleford's bacon with a try-saving challenge, as did Vowles, first on Newlove and then in halting Sullivan in full flight, as the visitors' line continued to enjoy a charmed life.

Saints were rocked back on their heels when, after Sampson and Orr made the running, full-back Jason Flowers scored under the posts for Orr to tack on the goal and inch Cas ahead, with a crucial video decision ruling against Gay after he went over in the corner.

Defences then remained unbreached until half-time, except when Long's chip-through saw Martyn plunder a try to which Sean added the goal.

With Castleford now set to face a tricky wind on the re-start a cliff-hanger still seemed in prospect, but Long had other ideas, first when he hoodwinked half-a-dozen defenders to score an amazing 40-yard try, and then found himself on the end of an Iro pass to aqua-plane over.

Sean added both conversions, and then landed a 30-yard penalty after Brad Hepi was placed on report following a tackle on Perelini. With Saints now firmly in the driving seat by leading 24-6 at three-quarter time, terrace talk was of a 50-point taming of the Tigers. But despite the inspirational Sampson being withdrawn because of injury Castleford stiffened their defensive resolve, and Saints had settle for further tries from Joynt, courtesy of Cunningham, and Martyn, who charged down a kick by Brad Davies to score, with Paul Wellens converting.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.