Castleford 3 Ilkley 15

League rugby resumed after yet more frost affected weekends with a trip down the M62 to Castleford in the backyard of Rugby League.

Castleford are one of the founder members of the union boasting six Yorkshire Cup wins, 58 County players and nine internationals all prior to 1910.

The influence of the 13 man code is clearly evident as this great club re-establishes itself in the top echelons of Yorkshire rugby.

The Dalesmen travelled to Castleford determined to avenge a narrow defeat earlier in the season when they contrived to lose 27- 4 when leading by 24-5 with only 20 minutes left.

In truth, defeat in the return fixture rarely looked on the cards with the Ilkley backs running in three tries with Castleford only able to respond with a single penalty.

The pick of the tries was a brilliant effort from Tom MacLean who quickly moved from his usual right wing spot to take the ball at pace on the opposite flank.

An outrageous dummy wrong footed the home defence and MacLean continued his jinking run fully 35 metres down the line to outpace the despairing tacklers and touch down for his first try of the season.

Ilkley attacked from the kick off and surging runs from Hamish Pratt and Peter Small almost brought an early try for the big second row. However, Ilkley suffered the ire of referee Mr Doug Chapman, who continually penalised the visitors throughout the game for a series of misdemeanours. In fact the penalty count was almost three to one in favour of the home side, something the Ilkley coaches will have to work on. Fortunately only one penalty was in range of the posts and Ian Mattisson, the Castleford scrum half took advantage to give his side their only points after Ilkley had opened the scoring with a try from Tuli Makaaf.

This followed skilled interplay between the Ilkley back row and the supporting Kirk Arundale. Castleford continued to use their heavier forwards to batter the Ilkley defence but the visitors held firm and full back Peter Shanks was rarely troubled.

MacLean’s try came on the half-time whistle and although Ilkley looked to have the game under control memories of that early season defeat meant the large band of Ilkley fans were unable to relax.

The visitors’ third try started with another mazy run from young MacLean with the ubiquitous Pratt again in support to feed Arundale to go over in the corner.

The Dalesmen's’ eagerness to press home their advantage resulted in them testing Mr Chapman's patience too far and John Oakes the big Ilkley prop had to take 10 minutes in the sin bin.

However the one man disadvantage made little difference.

It was a game that only a few weeks ago Ilkley could easily have lost. However, there is a new confidence in this side.

Although Ilkley are still in the bottom half of the league, more performances like this and they will surprise teams at the other end of the table. This week Bridlington make the long trek inland to take on the Dalesmen. The match at Dukes Park Bridlington was one of the ones that got away earlier in the season, Ilkley looking the better side but going down 3-0.

They need to turn the tables on Brid this week. Kick-off is at 2.15pm.