Report: Castleford 14-26 Warrington

The Warrington Wolves were the victors of a hard-fought affair with the Castleford Tigers in a game which lacked quality at Wheldon Road. A brace from Toby King was key to earning a second win over Daryl Powell's side in 2019. Here are my thoughts from the away end...


There was one major shock in the lineup, which was the inclusion of Jack Johnson, making his first appearance of 2019 in place of Tom Lineham, who was injured. Bryson Goodwin had been expected to cover for Lineham but Goodwin himself was not fit enough, meaning Johnson was given the nod. Ryan Atkins came in at centre, with Matt Davis starting at loose forward. The rest of the starting XIII remained the same, while Jason Clark was back on the bench.

It was Castleford who made the better start. A 40-20 from the influential stand off Jake Trueman gave the Tigers a chance to score but Wire defended it well. However, when Mike Cooper played a careless ball that was intercepted by Mike McMeeken, it gave Cory Aston an easy task to score under the sticks, a try which Peter Mata'utia had no trouble converting. It was a rare error for Cooper but one which the number 10 made up for very soon afterwards. Cooper collected the ball from a pass and then began a storming run to the line, which saw him carry four Cas players with him as he grounded it brilliantly, with Stefan Ratchford's conversion levelling matters. Ratchford could've scored himself when Chris Hill played him in, but the full back made a right mess of it. He made amends when he slotted a penalty over for an 6-8 lead, though.

An error-prone period played out with both teams cheaply losing possession, Ryan Atkins guilty of this three times in the game. A big sequence of events occurred ten minutes before half time. Tuoyo Egodo looked to have scored but was held up by a joint effort from Atkins and Ben Currie, and then moments later Warrington punished Castleford when a hoisted high kick from Blake Austin was fumbled by Greg Eden, and Toby King could cross for his first try of the evening. Ratchford missed the conversion but cored a penalty on the stroke of the hooter to give Wire a 6-14 lead at the interval. This lead was extended very early into the second half when good play from Daryl Clark sent King over for his second try. 

Two minutes later, a shocking kick-off from Mata'utia went out on the full, and this helped bring about our fourth try of the night. Austin sent Currie over from short range for his second try in as many games, and Ratchford's kick gave a commanding 6-26 lead. The lead could've increased with Austin being held up on the line and Atkins and Hughes both seeing tries disallowed by the video referee, and two late Cas tries made for a nervous few moments. Some sloppy passing from the Tigers was not stopped by Wire and the ball eventually made its way out wide to Egodo, who scored in the corner, and it was converted by Jordan Turner. Three minutes later, they were in again when a nice passing move down the flank went unchallenged, and Greg Minkin skipped past Ratchford to score. The last 18 minutes were scoreless and the Wire came away from Castleford with an important, if not overly impressive win.

The phrase that sums up tonight is 'a win is a win'. There was nothing flashy about our performance and it was a poor game as a spectacle, but we ground the result out and were comfortable for the majority of it. Toby King had a very good game, while Blake Austin and Daryl Clark influenced the game in more subtle ways than in previous weeks. After 14 rounds we have 11 wins and just three defeats to our name and sit healthily in 2nd place. Not a bad position to be in, particularly coming off the back of three wins and a cool victory away at a good side in Cas.

Next up for Wire is a Challenge Cup tie with rivals Wigan at the Halliwell Jones. The break in Super League gives us the chance to get a few players back such as Lineham, Mamo and Goodwin, while Murdoch-Masila will probably return to the fold, too. Sunday will be a big occasion and you can check out all the build-up to the game on the blog and on Twitter.

It's always our year.

Daniel (@aloosewire)