Castleford Tigers inflicted Warrington Wolves’ fourth straight Super League defeat and leapfrogged above them to move into eighth place in the Super League table today with a totally committed 14-22 victory at the Halliwell Jones Stadium.
Superbly led by Luke Gale, and with hooker Adam Milner having a fine game against his former Castleford team-mate Daryl Clark, the Tigers recaptured the spirit of 2014, while the Wolves made far too many errors on a warm, sunny day.
The Tigers took an early lead when Frankie Mariano broke downfield and in the next tackle Gale gave a great pass to Jordan Tansey who scored in the corner, too far out for Gale to add the goal.
Warrington captain Joel Monaghan thought he had scored after eleven minutes, but Chris Bridge’s pass was adjudged forward.
But there was nothing wrong with a try by Stefan Ratchford five minutes later, when he touched down a smart kick by Gareth O’Brien after a brilliant move involving Chris Hill, the returning Richie Myler, Kevin Penny and Ben Currie. O’Brien’s goal gave Warrington the lead.
And they extended it three minutes later, when Ryan Atkins scored after a great pass from Ratchford to Penny, who ran down the wing and combined with Atkins. O’Brien couldn’t convert.
The Wolves continued to press, but couldn’t add to their tally, and it was the Tigers who were next to score, as Luke Dorn scored from another great pass by Gale, which Gale also converted to leave the teams level at 10-10 at the interval.
Neither side could achieve a breakthrough in the third quarter, but then the Tigers scored two tries in three minutes to take a grip on the game after 68 minutes. Adam Milner touched down after he supported a superb break from Grant Millington, and Ben Roberts then scored after a break by Gale and a pass from Scott Moore, with Gale converting both tries.
Warrington tried to mount a late comeback and Penny scored in the corner, with the video referee confirming the try but O’Brien failing to add the goal.
Penny then touched down again, but this time was turned down by the video referee for a knock-on, and the game ended, appropriately, when Currie tried to make a break, but had the ball stolen one-on-one by the irrepressible Gale.
The Wolves are now out of the top eight for the first time this season.
