Rochdale Hornets 10-72 Castleford

Rochdale (6) 10
Tries: Yates Goals: Crook

Castleford (22) 72
Tries: Dixon 2, Arundel 2, Chase, Snitch 2, Clark 2, Massey 2, Milner, Owen
Goals: Dixon 9, Orr

Kirk Dixon ran in two tries as well as kicking nine conversions

Castleford survived the shock of shipping an early try as they stormed to a 13-try Challenge Cup fourth round win over Rochdale Hornets at Spotland.

Home full-back Scott Yates opened the scoring on 12 minutes for a 6-0 lead.

But, from the moment Cas levelled five minutes later, Kirk Dixon converting his own try, there was only one winner.

Dixon ended up with a 26-point haul, while there were also two tries each for Joe Arundel, Steve Snitch, Daryl Clark, and Nathan Massey.

Rangi Chase, Adam Milner and Richard Owen were Castleford's other three try scorers as Terry Matterson's men emphatically ended a four-game winless streak.

After falling behind to that early Yates try, although Rochdale remained willing opponents, the gulf in class was evident as the Tigers romped away to seal an away date with local rivals Wakefield in the next round.

Having been among the early-season Super League pacesetters, after fielding a near full-strength side at Spotland, Matterson is now hoping for a turn in fortunes when his side head to leaders Warrington next Friday night.

Matterson was pleased to come through a tough encounter unscathed, while also resting key men Richie Mathers and Brett Ferres, who had been carrying calf injuries.

In their absence, 19-year-old winger Greg Eden impressed on his competitive debut alongside Massey.

Rochdale boss John Stankevitch:

"I had a little look at the coupon handicaps this morning, and saw that we had 44 points against us and thought if we could stick to that sort of margin then I'd be pleased.

"It was obviously a little bit more than that, but I don't think the scoreline reflected the effort we put in.

"I thought in the first 20 minutes we were excellent and, if we play like that against any side in our division, we'll walk games. We just couldn't maintain it through the full 80.

"We've got lads in there that come off night shifts and have been working all weekend, and it's tough at this level against full-time opposition."

Castleford coach Terry Matterson:

"It was real important. We've lost three in a row, as well as drawing with Harlequins, and we probably should have won two of those games. Your confidence goes down and you wonder where your next win is coming from.

"Once we got into gear and, with the gulf between two divisions, it started to show. We were just too fast for them in the middle. But they had a really big dig at us and our blokes are a little bit sore.

"It was good to give a couple of guys like Nathan Massey and Greg Eden a go. I thought they were two of our better players today.

"We are a bit light there with Willie Isa and Nick Youngquest out at the minute. It's handy to have Greg coming through. I've been looking to give him a run because you can't always gauge how well someone is going in the Under-20s."

Rochdale: Yates; Bloomfield, Strong, Gorton, Saywell; Crook, Roper; Merville, Ashall, Cookson, Hobson, Bowman, Donoghue.

Replacements: Ekis, Newton, McDermott, English.

Castleford: Owen; Thompson, Arundel, Dixon, Eden; McGoldrick, Chase; Fozzard, Milner, Emmitt, Holmes, Widders, Hudson.

Replacements: Orr, Snitch, Massey, Clark.

Attendance: 1,675.

Referee: Thierry Alibert (France).