Widdop hat-trick fires Warrington Wolves past Powell's Castleford

Pictures Eddie Whitham

GARETH Widdop scored a hat-trick as Warrington Wolves beat incoming coach Daryl Powell’s Castleford side 38-14.

After losing at home to Huddersfield on Monday night, the Wolves bounced back in front of a 4,000-strong crowd at the Halliwell Jones Stadium.

It avenged the 21-12 defeat Warrington suffered at the hands of Castleford in the season opener at Headingley.

No Greg Inglis, due to injury, meant a re-shuffle in the backs for Steve Price, with Toby King reverting back to centre.

Castleford opened the scoring with their first possesion of the game, Paul McShane breaking through the middle and finding Jake Trueman, who has been linked with a move to Warrington, to score.

But in a lively opening, Warrington turned things around with two tries in three minutes.

Josh Charnley scored in the corner, a try that moves him up to joint-fifth in the all-time Super League try scorers list, before King scored the first of his two tries to help Warrington lead 10-6.

A fourth try of the game came on 17 minutes as Jordan Turner levelled things up, before things steadied. A solo try from Widdop gave Warrington the lead again and a Stefan Ratchford penalty put them 16-10 up at half time.

The first score of the second half would be crucial, and it eventually came on the hour mark, Ratchford setting up Widdop to break the Tigers resolve.

Three minutes later, Widdop finished off a break from Blake Austin to put the result beyond doubt, and King’s second and Daryl Clark against his former club added gloss to the scoreline before Turner’s consolation.

Warrington: Ratchford; Thewlis, Mamo, King, Charnley; Austin, Widdop; Hill, D. Clark, Cooper, Currie, Hughes, Philbin. Subs: J. Clark, Mulhern, Davis, Butler.

Castleford: Clark; Olpherts, Mata’utia, Shenton, Turner; Richardson, Trueman, Massey, McShane, Smith, Griffin, Sene-Lefao, Milner. Subs: Hepi, Matagi, Peachey, Martin.