Wolves rip Tigers to shreds
Warrington extended their lead at the top of the Super League table with a hugely impressive 62-0 victory over Castleford.
By Ben Sullivan
Last Updated: 14/05/11 7:48am
Warrington extended their lead at the top of the Super League table with a hugely impressive 62-0 victory over Castleford.
The Wolves produced a performance of high intensity in defence and attack for the full 80 minutes that proved far too much for the Tigers to deal with.
Castleford's early season promise is a fast-fading memory and after their fourth straight defeat, the Tigers' play-off hopes are also in danger of disappearing.
Nothing went right for the visitors - who lost Paul Jackson in the warm-up and Martin Aspinwall to injury moments after his knock-on had set up Warrington for the opening try inside three minutes.
It was scored by 19-year-old scrum-half Gareth O'Brien, whose dummy completely threw the Cas defence.
Three minutes later the visitors paid dearly for another-knock-on, this time from Nick Fozzard, with Lee Briers' dummy doing the damage.
Castleford survived for another 10 minutes, although their only attack of note was ended by a wild Richie Mathers pass into touch, before another knock-on followed by clever link play from Brett Hodgson put Matt King over in the corner.
On 24 minutes King salvaged a poor O'Brien bomb by flicking it inside and the teenager made amends by collecting the loose ball and sliding in a kick which Hodgson hacked on before touching down.
Perfect rebound
Briers grabbed his second try four minutes before the half, his dabbed kick rebounding perfectly into his arms off the foot of a post.
And Castleford's miserable half was complete on the hooter as Rangi Chase put in a perfect 40-20, only for time to expire before the scrum could be set.
The one-way traffic continued unabated after the break.
Simon Grix scored a quickfire double before Briers' dink into the in-goal area was seized on by Micky Higham.
King grabbed his second try with a superb finish in the corner under pressure from three defenders, before David Solomona finished off a flowing move with the 10th try.
Castleford could barely manage an attack and were virtually out on their feet by this stage, but Warrington still seemed full of energy - no least on the rare occasions when they didn't have the ball.
The final try came almost inevitably from distance as Cas fell off the tackles, Chris Bridge and Joel Monaghan exchanging passes before the Australian winger raced in unopposed.