Wigan 10-27 Castleford: Tigers impress again

Match stats: Wigan 10-27 Castleford

Wigan tries: Escare (35, 73)  Conversions/Penalties: Escare (73) 

Castleford tries: Webster (24), Gale (26), Sene-Lefao (43), Eden (77)  Conversions/Penalties:  Gale (24, 26, 32, 43, 77)  Drop goal:  Gale (80) 

Match report: Tigers impress again

The Tigers made it seven wins from eight with a clinical performance that condemned their injury-hit hosts to a third successive defeat. 

Castleford were not at their fluent best, as they dipped below their average of 40 points a game, but coach Daryl Powell will be delighted with the steely nature of their defence which restricted the champions to a try in each half from full-back Morgan Escare. 

Wigan are still without nine members of their first-choice starting team, including four England internationals, and have now gone four matches without a win after starting the defence of their title with four straight wins to trail the leaders by five points going into Easter. 

Castleford captain Michael Shenton wanted his team to make a statement at the DW Stadium and they did just that in his absence after he pulled out of the match with a back injury sustained in the warm-up. 

Joel Monaghan was drafted into the side in the last-minute re-shuffle, with Greg Minikin switching to centre on his return from a two-match injury absence, and the late change appeared to affect them as they made a customary slow start. 

CLICK HERE FOR SEASON FIXTURES, RESULTS & STANDINGS 

Handling errors from Nathan Massey, Jake Webster and Michael McMeeken inside the first eight minutes enabled Wigan to pile on the pressure and hooker Sam Powell and prop Ryan Sutton both reached the tryline only to be held up on their back. 

The Tigers gradually weathered the storm and hit their hosts with two tries in three minutes early in the second quarter. 

A clever delayed pass from stand-off Ben Roberts on the last tackle got centre Jake Webster bursting through for the first before an offload by substitute Jesse Sene-Lefao got full-back Zak Hardaker racing into space for acting captain Luke Gale to finish off with his ninth try of the season. 

Gale kicked both conversions, one of them off an upright, and added a penalty on 31 minutes to increase the lead to 14-0. 

Wigan suffered a blow when Powell was forced off with a head cut on 25 minutes, with George Williams - their in-form playmaker - taking on the dummy-half duties, but they pulled a try back six minutes before the break when Escare eluded Gale's tackle to cross wide out. 

A patched-up Powell was able to return for the start of the second half but he was a spectator as a rampaging Sene-Lefao sent a trio of defenders flying as he charged over for a solo try within three minutes of the re-start. 

Stalemate ensued with both teams settling for an arm wrestle until the game opened up in the final eight minutes. 

A fine touchline run from rookie winger Tom Davies created Escare's second try and Wigan were going for another when Castleford winger Greg Eden picked off Joel Tomkins' pass and sprinted 95 metres for his 11th try of the season. 

Gale kicked his fifth goal from as many attempts before wrapping up the scoring with a last-minute drop goal.    

Match Reaction

Castleford coach Daryl Powell: "I thought it was an awesome performance.

"We put ourselves under pressure right at the start with three handling errors which hurt us. We had to dig our way out of that and I thought we did it admirably.

"We had to find a way to score points, we were not at our best, but the pleasing thing is that you can see we've learned from the Salford defeat.

"The tough edge we've got as a defensive team shows we're growing all the time.

"It was a bit of a blow losing Shenny in the warm-up - his back locked up and he's still in a fair bit of pain - but Wigan have a lot of players missing so we're not going to complain about that.

"I think this was our best win of the season because of the nature of it. We've had victories where we've superb with the ball but tonight, just the sheer guts and determination gives us more belief that we can be there at the end.

"If we keep defending like that, teams will find it hard to break us down. It was one of the best defensive efforts since I came to the club. The boys have really bought into the way we're defending and that's really pleasing from a coaching perspective." 

Wigan coach Shaun Wane: "The effort was there, we were just a bit dumb.

"They are flying at the minute and playing a great brand of rugby.

"Our one-on-one defence was poor and the way we ended our sets was not good enough.

"They're a good team and you need to make sure you finish your sets. The only time they've made a lot of tackles and people have finished their sets against them was against Salford and they got turned over. That was the aim today but we weren't good enough.

"The players are hurting, it was a tough game to lose, but we look forward to next week."