Saints 32 Castleford Tigers 18 REPORT by Denis Whittle FAMED for their comebacks in recent seasons, Saints mounted yet another to snatch a Premiership Final place in this nail-biter at Knowsley Road on Friday.

Saints, whose defensive line had been pierced with alarming ease by classy Cas deservedly trailed18-2 and apparently had blown the chance. But this current Saints squad is never more dangerous that when its back is to the wall and amassed 30 points in the last half-hour, and grabbed the lead for the first time with just eight minutes remaining.

Scrum-half Sean Long was the hero of the hour in scoring the decisive try and kicking six goals, while due credit should be accorded the magnificent touchdown by Karle Hammond which proved the Cas defence was not infallible after all. Grafting prop Andy Leathem and strong-running back-rowers Apollo Perelini, Ian Pickavance, Chris Joynt and Derek McVey were others whose refusal to submit ultimately led to the downfall of Castleford, while full-back Danny Arnold continues to prove a capable deputy for the injured Steve Prescott.

However, Saints' margin of victory did scant justice to a reborn Castleford side who won many friends for the sheer quality of their performance, and nowhere was this more in evidence than at centre, where local product Jason Critchley and Australian Adrian Vowles held sway over Alan Hunte and Paul Newlove. Saints were rocked back on their heels when Castleford grabbed a second-minute lead as Davis put the finishing touch to a seven-man move on the sixth tackle and landed the conversion. Worse was to follow when Tuuta's reverse pass put Vowles over.

With Ford the inspiration, the Tigers had held most of the early aces, but Saints at last got their credit balance moving when Long kicked a 20th-minute penalty goal for holding down, then Perelini had a 'try' refused for a double movement, while promising winger Tony Stewart was stopped in full flight by Flowers.

All seemed lost for Saints as half-time loomed when Cas winger Richard Gay raced in at the corner, but Anthony Sullivan saved his side with a miraculous last-ditch tackle which called for video replay adjudication, with the only other pre-interval score being a penalty goal kicked by Davis and awarded for dissent.

A 50-yard break by Critchley set the Tigers up for further consolidation on the restart, with Davis the linkman as Vowles' chip-through rebounded off Stewart for Schick to notch a fortuitous try, with Davis rubbing salt into the wound by adding the touchline conversion

But the Castleford stand-off was guilty of a fundamental error in kicking dead on the full and, from the resulting penalty, Saints established a bridgehead for Hammond to sweep 30 glorious yards to score under the posts.

Hopes rose even further when both Perelini and substitute Chris Morley went close, but the latter was not to be denied in touching down after linking with Stewart, and although Long could not tack on the goal he was soon on target with a penalty to leave the issue in the melting pot at 18-14 to Cas.

Not for the first time, in stepped Long courtesy of McVey and Sullivan, with Newlove adding a last-gasp brace of tries.

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