Rugby League | Castleford Tigers 20 -14 Warrington Wolves

An important win for Castleford on a bad day for Warrington

Warrington Wolves' Super League play-off hopes were dealt a significant blow as they slipped to defeat against Castleford Tigers

Author | Amy W

Sam Stone’s early try gave the visitors a promising start, but Castleford responded with two quickfire scores. Daejarn Asi muscled his way over the line after brushing off several weak tackles, before George Lawler capitalised on a fumble from Lachlan Fitzgibbon to give the Tigers a 12-6 lead.

Jake Thewlis crossed for Warrington just before the break, reducing the deficit to two points at half-time. However, the hosts extended their lead through a Chris Atkin penalty and a try from Josh Simm, who finished off a sweeping counter-attack after Marc Sneyd lost possession in the middle of the park.

There was late drama when Stefan Ratchford touched down from a George Williams grubber, just after Alex Mellor had been shown a yellow card for a high tackle on Thewlis. Warrington appealed for a penalty try, but referee Ben Thaler opted for the sin-bin instead.

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Despite mounting pressure in the closing stages, Castleford held firm to secure a much-needed victory and hand interim coach Chris Chester his first win since replacing Danny McGuire earlier in the month. It was only the club’s fifth win of the season.

The result leaves Warrington three points adrift of the play-off places in eighth, having now lost four matches in a row. Those defeats include back-to-back losses to the league’s bottom two sides, with this result compounding their recent slide.

A closer look at what happened and why it happened 

It had started brightly for Wire, with Sneyd’s high kick mishandled by Fletcher Rooney and Ben Currie setting up Stone for a well-taken opener. But that momentum quickly faded. Asi’s determined finish and Lawler’s opportunism turned the tide, while Castleford defended doggedly in worsening conditions.

Just before half-time, Thewlis produced a flying finish in the corner after swift hands down the left edge, but the Tigers nearly struck again themselves. Zac Cini was denied inches short of the line by scrambling defence.

Warrington began the second half with renewed urgency, but Cas soaked up the pressure and struck decisively. Atkin’s penalty made it 14-10, and Simm added further daylight.

Asi missed a late drop-goal attempt that could have sealed the win, but Castleford’s defence held on through back-to-back goal-line battles to clinch an important result.