A FLASH of brilliance by winger Graham Allott and a sound all-round display by stand-off Matthew Yates gave York RI a well deserved 24-15 victory at Castleford.

With both sides needing the points to put daylight between themselves and the Yorkshire Three relegation strugglers, it was RI who grabbed the initiative and went into an early lead when Yates broke through the home defence to score.

A penalty on the half hour extended RI's lead before Castleford hit back with a try by lively scrum-half Price.

An exchange of penalties before the break saw RI turn round with 11-8 ahead.

RI started the second half confidently and kept Castleford pinned back in their own half, so great was the pressure that Castleford were reduced to killing the ball to stop RI's progress. Two penalties in as many minutes extended RI's lead to nine points.

It looked to be all over. However, the Castleford stand off had other ideas and from a scrum on the RI line he broke blind and crossed in the corner. Full back Gudson converted to reduce the gap to two points.

It was all set for a nail-biting finish when five minutes from time Allott caught a Castleford clearance kick, beat his winger on the outside and chipped down field. As the fullback was about to field the ball Allott, following up, snatched the ball from the full back's hands and sped under the posts to score. Yates added the conversion to compelete victory.

Updated: 10:19 Monday, March 31, 2003