5 takeaways as Castleford stun St Helens: Welsby’s woes, Terrific Tigers, Stephens blow…

Castleford Tigers stunned St Helens on Saturday afternoon, winning 30-10 on home soil to register back-to-back victories for the first time since July 2024!

Our five key takeaways from the clash at The Jungle…

Saints utterly dire

In terms of results at least, Saints haven’t had many blips to this point in 2026, but they got exactly what they deserved today from a dire performance: nothing.

Fundamental errors, knock-ons, kicking out on the full from restarts… handing the ball back to Cas far too easily.

The tone was set from the off, completing only eight of their 15 sets with the ball in hand in the first half and missing 25 tackles along with making seven errors by the time they headed back into the sheds.

They’ve relinquished top spot for at least the next fortnight as a result of today’s woeful performance, with Leeds ahead of them on points difference.

Terrific Tigers

Cas are yet to get going under Ryan Carr, and have been on the end of some absolute drubbings, but they again showed today just how good they can be.

This was the Tigers’ best showing by some distance since their shock win at Wigan last month, and more of the same is needed n the coming weeks. If you can do it against the best in the division, there’s no reason you shouldn’t be able to against those lower on the ladder.

A big shout is needed for the players on their edges today, who were phenomenal throughout and caused Saints no end of problems.

Jack Welsby’s woes

He was far from on his own, but Jack Welsby delivered one of the worst displays we’ve seen from him in a Saints shirt. We struggle to recall a tougher afternoon for the England international.

His late hit on Daejarn Asi with no attempt to wrap brought a yellow card and will, we expect, land him in hot water with the Match Review Panel come Monday.

Cas scored two tries during the ten minutes he spent off the field either side of half-time after that sin-bin, but in truth, Welsby was woeful beforehand.

The one defence we offer here on his behalf is that he isn’t a half-back or a centre, where he ended up in the second half. Jack Welsby is a full-back, and if you’re not going to play him there, you’re not getting anything like the best out of him.

Noah Stephens blow

Saturday’s game was action-packed and a couple of incidents were put on report, including the one which led to Saints losing young prop Noah Stephens.

The front-rower was forced off in the final minute of the first half after an awkward collision with Tyler Dupree as he returned a restart.

For what it’s worth, we can’t see there being any disciplinary repercussions from that for Dupree, but Stephens did have to go to hospital.

A rare head-to-head success for Cas

It comes as no great surprise given the fates of these two clubs over the last few seasons, but Cas victories over Saints have been a real rarity of late.

In fact, prior to today, the Tigers had won just one of their last 11 head-to-heads with Saints across all competitions, and that came by an 8-6 margin away from home in July 2024.

The last time Cas came out on top at The Jungle was in April 2022, when Saints fielded a youthful squad including the likes of Jumah Sambou and Daniel Moss, losing by an identical scoreline: 30-10.

Just as was the case here, Jason Qareqare grabbed the opening try for the Tigers that day, so history repeats itself!