Castleford threw the top five race wide open again after they inflicted defeat on second place Warrington at The Mend-A-Hose Jungle. Here’s how the game unfolded.
MATCH DETAILS
The match started with the away side applying heavy pressure on Castleford. That pressure paid off in the fourth minute, when Mike McMeeken ripped the ball late from Jason Clark.ย Wire opted to take the attempt at goal, and Dec Patton slotted the two points.
However, this seemed to spur the Tigers into life, as five minutes later they took the lead. After Jake Trueman broke through the Wolves line, Jake Mamo caught him, but off the next play the home side found a way to James Clare and the Winger scored in the corner. Peter Mata’utia added the extras.
Five minutes later, the Wolves gave away multiple penalties, and eventually the Tigers took the two, which Mata’utia took.
On the stroke of Half time, Warrington made more sloppy errors. Which granted Mata’utia the chance to add his fourth two pointer of the half. A chance he took with both hands.
The second half got underway in a similar fashion as the first, with Warrington getting on the scoresheet. With Tom Lineham getting in at the corner, after some amazing team play. Patton added the extras.
However, the lead didn’t last long as Cas were able to break back through Greg Minikin. The try came off some classy passing, and some sloppy defence by the Wire. Mata’utia failed to add the extras
As the Wolves tried to get back into the game, they went for the big play, however, after some second phase play, the Cas defence held firm, before Jake Trueman picked the Wolves attack, and ran the length of the field to score for the Tigers. The extras were added.
However, the Tigers weren’t finished, as moments later as Tuoyo Egodo finished off another classy play by Cas in the corner. However Mata’utia couldn’t add the extras
With ten minutes to go, the Wolves manged to break the home sides defence, after aย Patton kick was dropped by Egodo, and was met by a grateful Toby King. However, Patton failed to add the extras.
The game ended through a great piece of rugby by the home side, which eventually led to Jake Trueman taking the drop goal on the hooter.
The win moves the Tigers up to fifth, whilst Warrington remain second, however, they are only two points clear of third place Hull FC. Cas have the week off next week, whilst for Warrington is a cup Semi final against Hull at Bolton.
FOUR POINTERS
Forwards win matches
The old saying says, “the forwards decide who wins, the backs by how much”. Well that was spot on in this match. The ability that the tigers had up the middle was incredible, and was too strong for Warrington’s pack. They gave their back line the platform they needed to exploit the Wires weakness and eventually won the home side this one.
Daryl Powell: “It’s a big result for us”
Daryl Powell was pleased after his sides victory agaisnt second placed Warrington. He went on to say,ย “A really good performance – we’ve been talking a fair bit about backing up performances, efforts and attitude and I thought we did that. Iย thought they started really well and we struggled to contain them but once we got into the pace of the game I thought we were excellent. Obviously looking at the table – results have gone our way a little bit and it gets us into the top five.”
Steve Price: “It wasn’t one of our better displays.”
Steve Price said after his sides defeat that he felt errors cost his side. He went on to say, “We had 16 errors for the whole game and when you’re dishing that amount of errors you’re never going to give yourself a chance are you. There was a number of tough calls throughout the game, but we have to be better than that. We have to deal with it and that’s our challenge now.”
The Tru(e)man Show
The man that was the major difference in this match though was Jake Trueman. Although he only scored five points, the impact he had all over the park was outstanding. Making key breaks during the match, and had the pinpoint accuracy with the kicks out of hand. The all round player, he was able to run riot, and was my man of the match.
THE RESULT
Castleford Tigers 27
Tries: Clare, Minikin, Trueman, Egodo
Goals: Mata’utia (5)
Drop Goals:ย Trueman
Warrington Wolves 18
Tries: Mamo, Lineham, King
Goals: Patton (3)
Drop Goals: ย n/a
SQUADS
Castleford Tigers: Rankin, Clare, Minikin, Mata’utia, Egodo, Trueman, McShane, Massey, Milner, Clarkson, Holmes, McMeeken, Sene-Lefao.
Interchanges: Watts, Millington, Aston, Smith.
Warrington Wolves: Mamo, Lineham, Goodwin, King, Charnley, Austin, Patton, Hill, D. Clark, Cooper, Currie, Hughes, J. Clark.
Interchanges: Walker, Philbin, Davis, Tasi.
