Castleford 16-28 Warrington
Warrington continued their good start to the season with a hard-fought win over a tough Castleford outfit. It was a rugged contest between two evenly matched sides, but the Tigers will be bitterly disappointed to have gifted their opponents two tries through interceptions which proved crucial in such a tight match, but credit must go the Wolves for taking their chances.
Tony Smith, the Warrington head coach, was disappointed with his side's first-half performance, saying: "When we got good field position we just didn't throw the right plays at the opposition, but we grafted our way back in there. In the second half I thought we were a lot better and our defence was pretty committed right to the end."
Castleford found themselves under pressure from the kick-off but weathered the early storm from Warrington before hitting back on their first attack after 12 minutes. Ryan Hudson fed Brent Sherwin from dummy half and he created just enough space for James Evans to race over. Westerman added the conversion, but from the restart the Tigers put themselves under pressure through a series of errors. Their defence stood firm firm and when yet another Wolves attack broke down they pounced. Castleford swept upfield, stretching the visitors' defence down the right before moving the ball smartly to the left. Quick hands from Sherwin and Ryan McGoldrick allowed Westerman to charge through, to give his side a 10-0 lead midway through the half.
The home side continued to make mistakes in their own half and eventually Warrington took advantage, Simon Grix scrambling over the line to touch down a Lee Briers grubber kick, and Briers cut the deficit to four points with the conversion. Just before half-time the Wolves stand-off put a perfectly weighted kick to the corner, enabling Chris Riley to score. The teams went in at the interval all square.
Ten minutes into the second half, the Tigers regained the lead when Richie Mathers made a mess of securing a neat grubber kick to the line and Evans nipped in for his second touchdown. But their joy was short-lived as Briers picked off a pass from Rangi Chase and sprinted 40 metres for a try which made it 14-14. Westerman then landed a penalty to nudge his side ahead, but midway through the half the home side once again gifted a try when Ryan Hudson lost possession and Richie Myler ran in unopposed. Chris Bridge made it 20-16 with the conversion and with nine minutes remaining landed a penalty. The Wolves then wrapped up the match when they forced a goal-line drop out, Briers dummying to go for a drop goal before offloading to Myler, who forced his way over, to leave Bridge a simple conversion. Castleford coach Terry Matterson said: "I thought our effort was good but they scored from an intercept and a dropped ball. We just didn't create enough pressure."