As it turned out, perhaps Castleford would have preferred them to remain and extinguish a rampant York, who in the final quarter simply scorched all before them and were too hot to handle. A four try blitz in the final ten minutes, started by Ben Hepworth’s bullocking first of a brace, was the product of cool and controlled phased play by all departments. Patience and ball retention pulled the host’s defence to its limits, and when the inevitable hole appeared it was clinically exploited.
Conversely, the afternoon started with what looked like the riot hoses turned on the visitors, as from the first scrum a short run and pass by the Cas No8 put his centre through the ten channel. His simple offload inside to support brought a straight forward ‘wake up’ score under the posts with the crowd still taking its seats.
The control York later showed certainly eluded them for most of the first period. Their attack and counterattacks were bright and forceful, especially with Eveleigh and Martin beating men more often than not. However, often position was lost with 50:50 passes being tried and the team ending up on the back foot. It did however come together a few times. A sin binning of the Cas left wing for an obstruction on Arkle as he chased a grubber allowed Job to kick the corners and pressurise their defensive lineout. Fox, as his wont, eventually stole one and the backs hit hard for the line and drew a penalty for killing the ball. With everyone expecting a goal attempt Hargreaves tapped and played on. Going right he found Sam Potrykus in acres of space to draw any cover and send winger Sam Arkle over for a retributatory equalising score on 15 minutes.
Ten minutes later Cas we again caught by a similar ploy. From a line out in the Cas 22, the backs hit infield and left a row of forwards unmarked back down the blindside. And when back it came, Chris Fox was the recipient of two consecutive passes from props to score in the corner.
York’s own disruption was however still to the fore and chances to extend the lead from good breaks by Sam Thorpe and Jim Rossington squandered. A midfield scrum saw the Cas centre break against the flow and put his winger in for a successful sprint to the whitewash. Things could have been worse as the half closed but for a Cakaunitabua try saving tackle, this yielded a relieving knock on, leaving the scores level at 12 a piece.
With their ears ringing York took to the second half with gusto. A deep forward drive was matched by the backs executing a recently rehearsed expansive move to open up the field for Billy C coming in from the blindside wing. Penetrating deep into Cas territory he unselfishly fed Pete Martin to regain York's lead.
With a little daylight the York defence upped its work rate and its offence started to retain the ball better. The attrition began to tell on the hosts and, on the hour, after good forward play again with eight phases in the Cas 22, fly half Jonathen Job flew through a hole created in the middle. Although brought down on the line, he went to ground, let the cavalry recycle and feed the ball out to the fresh legs of substitute and new No1 son, Freddie Potrykus, to finish unopposed with an exuberant dive.
That was the bonus point won and the legs on Castleford began to grow leaden. The York pack continued to twist the knife and worked patiently to bring out that last 10 minutes of delightful handling rugby with glorious interplay between backs and forwards.
The team go into next week’s Yorkshire Shield game with Bridlington with a strong and positive lesson learnt in that they have the capacity to play, but must do the basics first. Great to see so few penalties against too. There is much promise ahead, if that second half can be bottled and rolled out every week.

Photos of the match were taken by a sports photogrpaher Jacqui O'Gara and these are available to view on her website www.action-photos.net (which I do commend to you, especially if you want proof of a prop passing -no25 and Micky, Pete and Darren "enjoying the view" -no64)