AFTER building up a 34 point lead Warrington Wolves leaked five unaswered tries before securing a 26-40 victory at Castleford Tiger.
As the Wolves looked to be cruising with five unaswered first half tries, all converted by Brett Hodgson, they looked destined for a huge score when David Solomona went over early in the second half.
But the alarm bells were ringing as the Tigers roared back with five unaswered tries, clawing back to 26-34 in the 68th minute before Stefan Ratchford steadied the Warrington nerves with a try three minutes from time to secure the points.
It took just two minutes for the Wolves to breach the Tigers defence through Ben Westwood, with further tries from Joel Monaghan,(7) Ryan Atkins (22), Westwood with a second (32) and Chris Riley (36) as Warrington produced a masterclass in attacking rugby.
But after Solomona extended the lead to 34-0 after 50 minutes the Tigers started their fight back with tries from Youngquest (53 & 60) on loan Wolf Rhys Williams (57) Owen (63) and on loan Wolf Lee Mitchell (68) with Ellis coverting one and Danny Orr two, to almost pull off a shock fight back.
Wolves’ boss Tony Smith refused to criticise his team after almost throwing away a commanding lead.
“I don’t think there was any complacency out there, more momentum of games, and they started to get their share of the ball in the second-half.
“I’m OK with my boys; I’ve just told them that. We’ve had a rough couple of weeks, both physically and mentally.
“I’m pleased with the victory, and we’ll go and review the game like we normally do, and try to reproduce the things we’ve done well today.”
Pictures show try scorers David Solomona, Chris Riley and Benny Westwood.
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