A DOMINANT second half performance saw Warrington Wolves home 48-18 away at Castleford Tigers.
A topsy-turvy first half saw 42 points scored and Warrington held a one score advantage, but they never looked back after the break, scoring 24 unanswered points to ease to victory and re-claim fourth place in the Super League table.
10 of Warrington’s starting 17 had come through the club’s system, with a welcome return for Cai Taylor-Wray after more than three months out on the bench.
When Adam Holroyd eased through off Leon Hayes’ short pass eight minutes in, it looked like it might be a comfortable afternoon in west Yorkshire, but the Tigers had other ideas, hitting back with three tries in eight minutes.
A smart one-two move saw Daejarn Asi put Jack Brown through a gap, and the forward popped up an offload to return the ball for Asi to score.
Then debutant Tylor Sharpe scored for his hometown club after taking Phoenix Laulu-Togagae’s long pass on the left touchline, before Laulu-Togagae stepped through himself all down the left to make it 16-6.
Warrington wrestled back control of the game down their own left hand side, first Matty Ashton with an acrobatic finish in the left corner reduced arrears to 16-12.
And then a sneaky move by Ashton and his inside centre Toby King down the shortest of short sides saw King put Ashton away to return the ball inside for King to score his 100th career try.
Toff Sipley and Joe Philbin again made an impact off the bench and Sipley reached over to put the ball over the try line under the posts on 36 minutes, with the fourth of Ewan Irwin’s eight successful conversions making it 24-16.
The half ended a little sloppily from the Wolves’ point of view, Irwin failing to find touch from a penalty and Holroyd conceding a penalty with a late hit which gifted Castleford the opportunity to bring them back within six points through Asi’s goal on the hooter.
But that was forgotten about within 15 minutes of the restart, as Warrington had scored three tries that put the game well beyond doubt.
Hayes’ short-kick wasn’t dealt with by Tom Weaver and his juggling gifted a try to James Harrison, and then Hayes scored his first try of the season with a chip over the top after spotting the full-back out of position, and he won the battle for the loose ball behind the posts.
Hayes had kept Castleford pinned back in their right corner with his kicks in the second half, and from more pressure, Ashton got his second try from a long pass from the returning Taylor-Wray.
For the second successive game, Warrington saw their opponents reduced to 12 men before shortly suffering the same fate themselves.
Alex Mellor was sinbinned for a professional foul after King had pounced on a mistake within 10 metres of the Castleford line, but he had barely been off for three minutes when King himself was shown a yellow card, much to his bemusement, for taking out Jordan Lane as the back-rower chased a kick in-goal.
King was still in the bin when Warrington wrapped up the scoring 10 minutes from time, Ben Currie crashing on to a Sam Powell pass and spinning out of contact on the line to touch down.
The win moves Warrington four points clear of St Helens in seventh place, with seven games of the season to go.
Castleford: Laulu-Togagae, Senior, Mellor, Mapapalangi, Sharpe, Asi, Weaver, Dupree, Hood, Lawler, Lane, Brown, Stimson. Subs: Atoni, Ashworth, Robb, Hirst
Warrington: Webster, Hopoate, Smith, King, Ashton, Irwin, Hayes, Thomas, Walker, Byrne, Holroyd, Harrison, Currie. Subs: Powell, Sipley, Philbin, Taylor-Wray
