Castleford 52 Warrington 26: Brough delivers Castleford revenge

Dave Hadfield
Monday 03 July 2006 00:00 BST
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Castleford wiped out memories of the 64 points Warrington put past them at The Jungle in April, with an almost equally resounding victory to ease their relegation fears.

An extraordinary game that was at one stage reduced to 21 players was decided by the Tigers' greater enthusiasm, typified by the non-stop performance of their recent scrum-half recruit, Danny Brough.

"There was a bit of motivation, because you don't like to be beaten by that scoreline," said the Castleford coach, Terry Matterson. "We spoke about making them pay while they're off form."

A fifth defeat in a row showed how desperately out of sorts the Wolves are, especially as they conceded three tries in the first 12 minutes.

The first, credited to Waine Pryce after Simon Grix had fumbled from the kick-off was quickly followed by others to Willie Manu and Brough.

Rob Parker and Brent Grose got a couple back for the visitors, before their defensive frailties were again exposed by Richard Fa'aoso. Stuart Reardon kept Warrington vaguely in touch, but the outstanding Danny Sculthorpe sent Peter Lupton over for Cas before half-time.

Three more tries - a second from Lupton and others from Michael Platt and Adam Fletcher - made the points safe, before the game suddenly went crazy with five men going off in three minutes.

The Tigers' Paul Handforth was the first to go to the sin-bin, for holding down in his first tackle after coming on as a substitute, followed by Gray Viane and Ben Westwood for fighting. When Ryan McGoldrick and Paul Wood began their own hostilities, both were sent off.

Michael Sullivan and Mike Cooper got late tries for Warrington, separated by one for Cas from Michael Shenton. The two points mean that they are now five points clear of Wigan and can be quietly confident of being in the Super League next season, while Warrington are lucky that no-one is mounting a real challenge to their place in the top six.

Castleford: Platt; A Fletcher, Shenton, Viane, Pryce; McGoldrick, Brough; Sculthorpe, Henderson, Nutley, Manu, Roarty, Lupton. Substitutes used: Ward, Fa'aoso, Huby, Handforth.

Warrington: Reardon; Fa'afili, M Gleeson, Kohe-Love, Grose; Briers, Grix; Leikvoll, Sullivan, Wood, Wainwright, Westwood, Parker. Substitutes used: Noone, Bracek, Pickersgill, Cooper.

Referee: S Ganson (St Helens).

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