Saints beat Castleford 26-12 to win the Challenge Cup at Wembley

It was looking dicey at the break with Castleford taking advantage of some Saints errors to go in 12-6 at the break.

But they kept their heads to win 26-12 and take the cup for the 13th time.

It was a commanding second half performance from Saints in which the forwards stamped their authority on the match, led from the front by veteran skipper James Roby.

With that in mind, many comparisons were made between this final and the scorcher of 1976 when the Saints pack was dubbed Dad’s Army for having a front row with a combined age of 100.

Well today’s trio of Alex Walmsley, Roby and Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook beat that average by a year – but they were the ones running around like spring chickens as the game wore on.

Roby scored the try from a kick and tap back that got Saints level.

At the other end of the age spectrum, Jack Welsby provided some masterful touches when he replaced Theo Fages in the halves.

Fages is as game as anyone, but the couple of errors he made after scoring his opening try showed he must have aggravated the injury that kept him out last week.

But that simply presented Welsby with the opportunity to show his undoubted class – and the try he set up for Tommy Makinson was pure class.

That gave Saints the lead they lead they never relinquished.

A couple of Coote penalties twisted the knife, killed the clock and left Cas with a mountain to climb.

Kyle Amor rumbled over late in the game to widen the final margin – but it had been a tough old 80 minutes.

That was from the off with Castleford’s tackling gave Saints’ first ball-carriers a torrid start with each one being rocked back leaving them to kick on the back foot.

Saints withstood that early fire and then took their opportunity to turn the screw when Fages chip over was chased enthusiastically by Joel Thompson and Jonny Lomax to force a drop out.

And from the next set the rebound from Lomax’s measured kick to the posts was gathered and grounded by Fages.

Coote added the extras to give Saints a 6-0 lead on the 10 minute mark.

But a couple of uncharacteristically sloppy Fages passes to Lomax seemed to cause Saints’ game to unravel. Both were costly pressure releases, with Saints attacking the Cas line at the time.

But the first threw the Tigers the lifeline to get back into the game, for after that first spillage and then penalty Cas the caution to the wind and exposed Saints on the right.

With Saints scrambling to cover after being stripped out wide, Peter Mata’utia’s measured kick inside was collected by Niall Evalds. Gareth O’Brien’s goal levelled it.

A couple more Saints handling errors, including Kevin Naiqama putting down Coote’s pass gave Cas another leg up, which they duly took.

They tested Saints with the variety to their kicking game and their willingness to offload and support.

It was inevitable Cas would score and they did with Jake Trueman outjumping Fages to O’Brien’s kick to plant it down beneath the posts.

That made it 12-6 to the at half time – a break Saints needed to regroup and regain their composure, and that is just what they did.

Saints : Coote; Makinson, Naiqama, Percival, Grace; Lomax, Fages; Walmsley, Roby, McCarthy-Scarsbrook, Batchelor, Thompson, Knowles. Subs: Welsby, Lees, Amor, Paasi.

Castleford team: Evalds; Olpherts, Mata'utia, Shenton, Turner; Trueman, O'Brien; Griffin, McShane, Millington, Holmes, Sene-Lefao, Massey.

Subs: Watts, Milner, Foster, Smith.