Castleford 36-16 Warrington: Greg Eden scores five tries as Tigers savage Wolves

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Match stats: Castleford 36-16 Warrington

Castleford tries:  Eden (2, 9, 28, 44, 52), Minikin (11), McMeeken (15)
Goals: Gale (9, 15, 28, 44) 

Warrington tries: Lineham (23), Westerman (54), Hughes (72)
Goals: Patton (23, 54) 

Match report

Greg Eden scored five tries as leaders Castleford moved six points clear at the top of Super League with a 36-16 victory over Warrington.

The in-form winger took his Super League tally for the season to 30 to ensure Daryl Powell's rampant side heaped more misery on Wolves coach Tony Smith.

A fourth consecutive defeat leaves last season's Grand Final runners-up in 10th position, two points outside the top eight with six matches remaining before the cut-off.

They now face a seemingly make-or-break Challenge Cup quarter-final against Wigan on Saturday.

However, electric Eden can do no wrong after returning from the NRL following a disappointing spell with Brisbane Broncos.

His new scoring exploit made him the first Castleford player to score five tries in a Super League game.

And he finished just one short of equalling the competition record of six set by Lesley Vainikolo for Bradford against Hull in September 2005.

Warrington, now without a win in five, did not help their cause. England prop Chris Hill was sin-binned after only seven minutes for a late tackle on international colleague Luke Gale.

Winger Tom Lineham, one of three Warrington try-scorers, was also yellow carded in the second half but by then the damage had been done.

In Hill's absence, the Tigers scored three times through Eden, Greg Minikin and Mike McMeeken.

Warrington also lost centre Matty Blythe to an early leg injury and trailed 22-0 before winger Lineham notched their opening try.

But Eden, who scored the sport's fastest hat-trick in five minutes against Leigh on Bank Holiday Monday, swooped for his third on the half hour.

The Tigers led 26-6 at half-time and were already heading for victory to mark prop Andy Lynch's 500th career game in style.

But Eden had not finished his scoring exploits. The 26-year-old registered try number four after 44 minutes and his fifth from Michael Shenton's pass eight minutes later.

In between, Tigers lost influential second rower Junior Moors to injury, meaning he could now be doubtful for their Challenge Cup quarter-final at holders Hull next Sunday.

Warrington, who have now conceded 182 points in their last five games, kept plugging away. Ex-Tigers Favourite Joe Westerman and Jack Hughes touched down to add respectability to the scoreline but the afternoon again belonged to Eden and Daryl Powell's Tigers.

Match reaction

Castleford coach Daryl Powell on five-try winger Greg Eden: "Greg is such a great finisher but there are some smart things done by the people inside him. Some of the stuff the left edge did was special. I thought Zak Hardaker getting into the line and creating overload situations was great.

"Passes from Luke Gale and Michael Shenton to Greg were outstanding and he put the finishing touches on them. It wasn't perfect from us. There were flashes of absolute brilliance but in the second half we were disappointing.

"Ultimately, we are six points clear and at this stage of the season we are in a good position. It is about us going on with it and staying focused."

Pressed on Eden's try-scoring exploits: "Some of the ways he has caught the ball and how quickly he sees the ball and gets in his stride again is pretty special."

On a potential medial knee ligament injury to second-row Junior Moors: "That is a little bit of a dampener for us. It doesn't look great but he needs a scan. But it is what it is and we have been pretty lucky with injuries."

Under pressure Warrington coach Tony Smith on his side's fourth consecutive defeat and Chris Hill's seventh-minute sin-binning for a late tackle on Luke Gale: "It made it hard to win that game. When you are down to 12 men it could have been worse. There was a fair bit of damage done in that first period.

"The captain was hard on himself in the changing room afterwards. But we still shouldn't have leaked as many points in that period. The response in the second half showed some character, particularly with the troops down.

"We had seven or eight out injured that you would suggest would be in our starting team. Bearing those two things in mind there was a bit about us. We need to improve in many areas but we showed some improvement. I didn't think we attacked too badly. We found it pretty easy to get up the field.

"I still think Castleford are a very good attacking team. But I am not convinced about all aspects of them in terms of their defence."