Castleford women attract record crowd

James Gordon

A home record crowd of 1,148 watched Castleford Women beat Featherstone 48-4 at The Jungle on Thursday night.

In another boost for the women’s game, a live stream of the match also achieved thousands of views.

For half an hour, it looked like Featherstone were capable of an upset, former Castleford skipper Katie Hepworth drawing them level at 4-4.

But even with Tara Stanley in the sin-bin, Castleford opened up a 14-4 advantage before half time.

They cut loose in the second half with three tries in 12 minutes from Kelsey Gentles putting the game beyond doubt, and she would finish with four on the night.

It is believed that the attendance figure is one of the highest ever for a stand-alone women’s rugby league game.

Almost 1300 turned out for the 2018 Grand Final, while a crowd of over 3,000 was recorded for a game between Bradford and Leeds last season which formed part of a double header with a men’s fixture.

Women Castleford Tigers