Castleford Tigers had to dig deep to fend off an impressive second-half comeback by Catalans Dragons to claim a 36-28 victory at The Jungle this afternoon.
The first try of the afternoon did not arrive until the 20-minute mark, when Luke Gale's searching ball found Ashley Gibson, who in turn was able to touch down for the opener.
Gibson added his second just six minutes later when he scored untouched which, combined with a couple of successful penalty kicks and a Grant Millington try shortly before the interval, left Catalans staring down the barrel.
A sloppy start to the second half allowed Laurent Frayssinous's men to mount a comeback, however, which began with Benjamin Garcia crossing over to cut the deficit to just 10 points.
Garcia was at it again 10 minutes later, taking on a pass from Scott Dureau to find the chalk and make it 20-16.
Dureau was once again successful with his follow-up attempt to add further pressure to the hosts, and while Michael Shenton crossed over to relieve some of that pressure, Zeb Taia capitalised on a kind bounce to add try number eight of the game.
There was to be no miraculous recovery in the end, though, as Jordan Tansey and Scott Moore powered over to seal the points for Castleford, making Garcia's late hat-trick try a mere consolation.
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