Wolves maul Wembley bound Tigers

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WARRINGTON Wolves took advantage of Challenge Cup finalists Castleford Tigers much changed team, as they ran out 48-10 winners at the Halliwell Jones Stadium.
Castleford made eight changes from their challenge cup semi-final winning squad and although their makeshift line-up were far from disgraced, they could not match Warrington’s superior finishing in the second half of the contest.
In fact the Tigers dominated the opening quarter but couldnlt break through Warrington’s water tight defence.
Warrington needed to win by 29 points to leapfrog Castleford into fourth place and they reached their target courtesy of Joel Monaghan’s 24th Super League try of the season seven minutes from the end.
In the opening 20 minutes, the Tigers forced three goal-line drop-outs and repeated sets, but were unable to supply the final touches to their promising build-up play.
Warrington’s defence was up to the task as they struck twice on the counter-attack to open up a 12-0 lead.
Ryan Atkins got the opening try, taking advantage of a kind bounce after Ben Reynolds was deceived by a kick from Gareth O’Brien, who then supported a long-range break by Michael Monaghan to score the second.
Chris Bridge powered through some poor defence to score a third Warrington try on 22 minutes and then kicked his third conversion before hobbling off with a leg injury.
The Tigers hit back on 28 minutes when left winger James Clare took Jamie Ellis’ long pass and produced a superb one-handed finish at the corner.
Castleford almost scored again before half-time when second rower Frankie Mariano was put through a gap on halfway by Nathan Massey and held off the cover on a blazing sprint to the line, only to be held on his back by Rhys Evans’
last-ditch tackle.
Trailign 18-4 at the break there was no stopping Oliver Holmes six minutes into the second half when he took Ellis’ short pass to barge his way over despite the efforts of four defenders.
Liam Finn’s conversion reduced the deficit to eight points but Warrington made the game safe with two further tries in a five-minute spell.
Evans took Simon Grix’s cut-out pass to cross at the corner for the first of his two tries and prop Anthony England powered onto Micky Higham’s short pass to crash over by the posts.
With Bridge off the pitch, Stefan Ratchford added both conversions to make it 30-10 and then used an overlap to cross for Warrington’s sixth try on 65 minutes.
As the Tiger’s tired, Monaghan and Evans both went over in the last seven minutes as Warrington emphasised their superiority and Ratchford took his goal tally to five from as many attempts.
Top picture shows players supporting Micky Higham’s forthcoming testimonial.

Joel Monaghan takes on the Tigers


Micky Higham bursts through


Rhys Evans heads for the line


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Experienced journalist for more than 40 years. Managing Director of magazine publishing group with three in-house titles and on-line daily newspaper for Warrington. Experienced writer, photographer, PR consultant and media expert having written for local, regional and national newspapers. Specialties: PR, media, social networking, photographer, networking, advertising, sales, media crisis management. Chair of Warrington Healthwatch Director Warrington Chamber of Commerce Patron Tim Parry Johnathan Ball Foundation for Peace. Trustee Warrington Disability Partnership. Former Chairman of Warrington Town FC.

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