Greg Eden registered a hat-trick of tries for the second time against Leeds this season as Castleford closed the Dacia Magic Weekend with a stylish second-half performance.
Match stats: Castleford 29-18 Leeds
Castleford tries: Gale (4), Eden (48, 50, 64), Holmes (57)
Conversions: Gale (4, 48, 51, 65)
Drop-goals: Gale (73)
Leeds tries: Watkins (15), Moon (67), Sutcliffe (78)
Conversions: Sutcliffe (35, 68, 78)
Match report
Greg Eden registered a hat-trick of tries for the second time against Leeds this season as Castleford closed the Dacia Magic Weekend with a stylish second-half performance.
With the scores level at 6-6 after an evenly poised opening 40 minutes, Eden crossed twice in the space of three second-half minutes to ultimately swing the contest firmly in Castleford's favour.
Having also bagged a treble when the teams met earlier this season, Eden crossed once more to put the finishing touches on a 29-18 victory, one that moves the Tigers two points clear at the top of the Betfred Super League.
The prolific winger took his tally to a league-best 18 tries for the season, while this effort was his second hat-trick in the space of nine days, having also touched down three times in a 53-10 win over St Helens in the Challenge Cup last week.
The league leaders had also routed Leeds 66-10 at the Mend-A-Hose Jungle in March but found the Rhinos a much tougher opponent at St James' Park, where the total attendance for the weekend was revealed to be 65,407, the third highest in 11 stagings of the event.
Leeds had won seven times in nine Super League matches since that humbling and they at least proved their mettle in a frenetic end-to-end opening half, while late tries from Joel Moon and Liam Sutcliffe kept the scoreline respectable.
They were forced onto back front from the off as Castleford came flying out of the blocks, with Luke Gale bursting over for the first try in the fourth minute, latching onto his own high kick after Michael Shenton had parried the ball into his path.
Having added the extras to his own score, Gale should have been in again but a woeful pass from Shenton hampered his efforts as Leeds were given a let-off.
Their minds may have drifted back to that thumping in March, but they rallied and after Greg Minikin knocked on deep inside his own half Leeds spread the ball to the right and Danny McGuire's cutout pass allowed Kallum Watkins to ghost over after 15 minutes.
Castleford retained their lead as Sutcliffe's conversion came back off the post, but Leeds remained on the front foot and only fantastic goal-line defending prevented Stevie Ward and Anthony Mullally from touching down.
Castleford thought they had stolen a march when Eden sprinted the length of the pitch, holding off Ashton Golding to score, but video referee Ben Thaler chalked off a try of the season contender for obstruction by Shenton in the build-up.
Leeds opted to go for the two points from the resulting penalty, Sutcliffe making no mistake to even the score at 6-6 at half-time.
Cas once again were full of an endeavour at the start of the second half, and both Shenton and Junior Moors were prevented from grounding the ball having passed the try line.
But Cas were not denied a third time as a polished move along the left led to Eden bagging his 16th try of the season in the corner after 48 minutes.
He did not have to wait long for number 17 as two minutes later more quick handling along the line saw him take Shenton's no-look pass to score in the left corner.
Shell-shocked Leeds sought a way back but McGuire's attempted grubber flew straight into the hands of Tom Holmes, who darted the length of the field to score on the right to take Castleford well clear.
The excellent Shenton's selfless offload allowed Eden to complete his hat-trick in the 64th minute but Leeds refused to roll over and tries from Moon and Sutcliffe at least showed Castleford did not have things all their own way.
In between those scores, Gale slotted home a drop goal to go with his four conversions for a 13-point match haul.
Match reaction
Castleford coach Daryl Powell: "I thought it was a great game for us. The boys were quiet at half-time, you can see when players are in a really difficult game because they're quiet at half-time and they're just trying to collect their thoughts. We just needed a bit more composure.
"Overall it was perfect game for us, being really challenged and having to dig our way out of a really tough game but still being able to play the way we want to.
"It just took us a while to get there and I thought we adjusted really well. The whole of the 17 played really well."
"Leeds are a proud club and team, and they came after us and really made us work for what we got out of the game - it was a tough game."
Leeds coach Brian McDermott: "It was a great contest and we stuck with Castleford (in the first half).
"But just after half-time we lacked concentration, lacked composure and flaked out a little bit unfortunately, both with some defensive errors and with the ball there were too many errors. That was a flaky moment, it's not normally us.
"It took the game right away from us, it wasn't a gradual swing away.
"They're a good team and taking it all into account I thought we were in the fight. We were good value and to come back at the end and keep challenging them and breaking them down... Castleford are a good team but after that I think we're a good team as well.
"Clearly we've got to fix one or two things up the next time we meet but that was a heartening performance, we showed some resilience there."