LEEDS RHINOS, the Engage Super League champions, have made no secret that their World Club Challenge date with Melbourne on February 28 is their first priority this season.

Their eye certainly came off the ball in their second league fixture against Castleford, who pulled off a shock 24-10 victory at Headingley Carnegie on Friday night.

Brian McClennan, the Leeds coach, held his hands up in acknowledging that the better team had won after his side had twice taken the lead through tries by Danny McGuire and Brett Delaney in the first half.

“In the last 20-25 minutes they were very good and really dominated,” McClennan admitted. “They had us in our quarter and we were struggling to get out. The victors get all the spoils, so well done to Castleford.

“They played some pretty good footy. Could we have gone better? Of course we could, but let’s acknowledge what a good effort Castleford made. We were down to two subs and they did well to take advantage of that. They really sucked the energy out of us in that last quarter and you could see us getting flatter and flatter.

“If you want to win you have got to be ruthless and they were. We’ve found out pretty early in 2010 that losing still stinks.”

James Evans kept Castleford in contention with his first-half touchdown. Tries after the interval by Joe Westerman, Brent Sherwin and Dean Widders got the Tigers’ league campaign off to the perfect start. “We didn’t really focus too much on who we were playing because we knew we were playing a great side,” Terry Matterson, their coach, said.

“What we did was to play well. We were very enthusiastic throughout, our kicking game was outstanding in the second half and we didn’t give them a foothold back in the game. We’re really happy with that. They created some opportunities and made some breaks but we were just desperate and the guys really believed.

“Everybody has said what a tough draw we’ve got: Leeds, Warrington, Bradford, Hull KR, Hull. But at the end of the day you have to play them all and, if we concentrate properly on what we are doing, we are going to be contending in all the games.”

In another west Yorkshire derby, Huddersfield prevailed 24-12 against Bradford. Brett Hodgson, last year’s Man of Steel, laid on two tries for Leroy Cudjoe. Further scores by Shaun Lunt and David Fa’alogo, on the New Zealand forward’s Giants debut, saw off for the Bulls, for whom former Great Britain international Stuart Reardon scored twice at the start of his second spell with the club.

Huddersfield’s Nathan Brown, the 2009 coach of the year after the Giants’ highest-placed third finish, was delighted with the result, particularly after second-half sin-binnings of Luke Robinson and Lee Gilmour.

“Our effort, especially with 12 men for a lot of the game, was there for all to see,” Brown said. “We built last year on effort and commitment for each other and it was there again tonight.

“Brett played great and everybody knows what type of player he is and how important he is to the team. He does that on the back of some guys working really hard. We lost Keith Mason [with a pectoral muscle tear] after one minute and our big blokes in the middle did a great job.”

Michael Maguire, the new coach of Wigan Warriors, saw his reign get off to an encouraging start with a 38-6 victory over Crusaders. Full-back Cameron Phelps created two tries and scored another and winger Amos Roberts grabbed a brace in a deflating return to the DW stadium for Crusaders’ ex-Wigan coach Brian Noble.