Wigan Warriors get back to winning ways despite spirited Castleford performance

Matty Peet’s side survived a late comeback attempt from the Castleford Tigers to maintain their 100% home record and got back to winning ways after a heavy defeat to Catalans last time out.

It’s back-to-back defeats for the Tigers who were beaten at Huddersfield last time out, but it was a spirited performance from Lee Radford’s side who fell just short of making the early headlines in Round six of the Betfred Super League.

Castleford started the better side, beginning the encounter on the front foot, and they took the lead with a penalty kick thanks to Gareth O’Brien.

But the penalty seemed to wake the home side up as they reacted quickly and replied with points of their own within four minutes as Jai Field pulled off a brilliant dummy pass earlier in the set which saw Zak Hardaker cross in the far corner and give the Warriors the lead.

Despite missing the resulting conversion, the try took Hardaker to 500 points in a cherry and white shirt, a fantastic achievement from the proud Yorkshire-man.

Joe Westerman began to grow into the game as his driving runs were causing concern for the Warriors defence, one of which led to a brilliant offload on the spin to Jake Mamo but the former Warrington man couldn’t quite break through the Wigan side.

It wasn’t long before the Warriors got their second try of the night. Who else but Jai Field breaking the lines with another of his electric runs before setting up Liam Marshall who was left with the easiest of tasks to cross the line and put the hosts in control.

But Cas kept fighting, and as the half drew to a close, Greg Eden who came close moments before, powered over the line after receiving a high pass and clawed the Tigers back into the encounter.

But it wasn’t quite the positive end to the half that Radford would’ve been hoping for as left centre Mahe Fonua was sin-binned with a couple of minutes left of the half for a late tackle on John Bateman – a decision which left many in bemusement as Cas went down to the 12 men.

The decision was spoken about in Lee Radford’s post-match press conference in which he described the current sin-binning situation within the sport as like ‘boxing without being able to throw a punch.’

The second half started with sheer dominance from the Warriors who scored three tries in ten minutes to create clear daylight between the two sides.

Tries coming from Ethan Havard on his return to the side, Jai Field and Liam Marshall with his second of the night put Wigan well ahead in the early stages of the second period.

But it wasn’t all as simple as that for the Warriors. As Cas levelled the playing field in terms of men on the pitch, they staged what was nearly a remarkable comeback at the D.W., pulling to within six points of the Warriors in the latter stages of the game.

Tries from George Griffin, Jake Trueman and Jake Mamo had the Warriors worrying that they were a few points away from throwing their lead away, but a huge turning point followed which killed all of Castleford’s momentum.

A moment that didn’t need any controversy in the slightest followed as Brad Martin received a straight red card for a high hit on Willie Isa which no one argued with as Cas were back down to 12 men.

Wigan scored two extra penalty kicks from Zak Hardaker which saw them take a 32-22 lead which resulted in the final score.

The win makes it five wins from six for the Warriors whilst Castleford are still with just the one win so far this campaign as they look ahead to their next fixture with a trip to Headingley in the sixth round of the Challenge cup against Leeds Rhinos.

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