Castleford 23-22 St Helens: Tigers book Grand Final spot after Luke Gale's Golden Point in extra-time
Luke Gale kicked a Golden Point in extra-time as Castleford beat St Helens to reach their first ever Super League Grand Final.
Match Stats: Castleford 23-22 St Helens
Castleford win thanks to Luke Gale's Golden Point in extra-time
Castleford tries: Hardaker (1), Gale (57), Milner (64)
Goals: Gale (2,8,58,65,80 + Golden Point)
St Helens tries: Grace (16), Knowles (37), Makinson (70), Percival (73), Morgan (78)
Goals: Percival (38)
Match report
Luke Gale kicked Castleford into their first ever Super League Grand Final after the most dramatic of play-off semi-finals against St Helens.
The Tigers, who romped away with the League Leaders' Shield and finished 17 points ahead of fourth-placed Saints, headed into the clash as odds-on favourites to book their place at Old Trafford but they became embroiled in a thrilling see-saw battle in which both sides threw away leads in the closing stages of normal time.
Returning to the side just 16 days after having his appendix removed, England scrum-half Gale scored a try and kicked four goals to put his side into a what appeared to be a winning 20-10 advantage after 64 minutes.
However, in a dramatic finish, Saints roared back with three tries from Tommy Makinson, Mark Percival and Ryan Morgan - although crucially Percival failed to kick the extras for any of them as they edged into a narrow 22-20 lead.
With the final hooter about to sound and send the travelling supporters into ecstasy and the home faithful into despair despite their club's historic season, Saints conceded a penalty for obstruction with 28 seconds to go and Gale held his nerve to level the scores and send the game into extra time.
Gale and Matty Smith both failed with drop-goal attempts before the Castleford man finally hit the mark to send the bulk of the 11,235 crowd into raptures and bring to a sudden end one of the most dramatic matches in history.
Castleford, who will meet the winners of the Friday's semi-final between Leeds and Hull at Old Trafford on October 7, have become the seventh club to reach a Grand Final and will be favourites to become only the fifth team to win a title held by just four teams in the 21 years of Super League.
The Tigers are now 1/2 favourites with Sky Bet to get their hands on the Super League trophy while Leeds are 3/1 and Hull are 7/2.
Daryl Powell's side were universally acknowledged as by far and away the best team in the league in 2017, topping the table by 10 points from second-placed Leeds and finishing with a staggering points difference of +429, but St Helens deserve enormous credit for their part in a remarkable game in which they outscored their hosts by five tries to three.
Zak Hardaker crossed for the hosts in the first minute after a Zeb Taia fumble but tries from Regan Grace and Matty Knowles gave St Helens a 12-10 half-time lead.
Gale's try was followed by Adam Milner's in the 64th minute but it was the crazy finale to this semi-final which will live long in the memory.
Match Reaction
Luke Gale: "Wow. It's hard to sum up, I'm emotional at the minute. It was an awesome game, I thought we'd blown it. It came down to the last second and that's my job to get those drop goals.
"It's pretty special being in a hospital bed two weeks ago thinking my season was over to this, but things happen for a reason."
Castleford coach Daryl Powell on Gale and his fitness concerns prior to the match: "On Monday he was pretty sure, I just wanted to give him until Wednesday. He handled it pretty well.
"It was a phenomenal effort to get himself on the field in such a short space of time, although he might have hurt himself being dived on at the end.
"He held his nerve with the penalty and that drop goal was world class. To get it over over the top of onrushing defenders was pretty special."
Powell on the game: "It was obviously really tight all the way through but we got a 10-point cushion and that should have been enough.
"But we were a little bit soft on our tryline. There were some disappointing things in there but it was unbelievable at the end and to come out on top in extra time is massive for us.
"We've done a Saints on St Helens. They'll be disappointed because they played well tonight. Goalkicking let them down but Percival has been an awesome player for them so I don't think you can point the finger too much at him."
St Helens coach Justin Holbrook: "It's really hard to take. It can be a cruel game at times - and it cost us.
"It will take some getting over. I'm obviously really proud of our boys, how we kept fighting, especially to come back in the second half."