Castleford lifted by Sampson's enduring strength

Warrington 16 Castleford 3

You are not supposed to believe in fairy tales when you reach your mid-30s, but Dean Sampson wrote one of his own at Wilderspool last night.

The former Great Britain prop came out of retirement to help Castleford out of their injury crisis and even managed to score a vital try as they consolidated their place in Super League's top six with a convincing victory.

After a cagey start it took some time for either side to start creating chances. Ian Sibbit almost reached Mike Wainwright's kick for Warrington before Nathan Wood saved the Wolves with a last-ditch tackle on Tom Saxton with the line looming.

Defences were well on top and it took something special from the man who so often produces it for Warrington, Lee Briers, to break the deadlock. He threw a pass half the width of the pitch for Darren Burns to sell a dummy and touch down. Unfortunately, that triggered a positive rush of point scoring from Castleford.

With their in-form prop, Andy Lynch, regularly slipping the ball out of the tackle, Castleford repeated, stretched the Warrington defence and, after 21 minutes, Ryan Hudson exploited the gaps by driving over from dummy-half.

Hudson was also at the heart of the second try, his little kick near the line taking a series of rebounds for Sampson - wearing the No. 36 shirt to celebrate his next birthday rather prematurely - to dive on the loose ball and put his side further ahead.

Lynch got the ball away again to set up the position from which Damien Gibson supplied the pass for Waine Pryce to claim the Tigers' third and with Wayne Bartrim kicking all three goals Warrington were in danger of slipping out of contention.

Immediately before half-time, Nathan Wood kicked over the defence. Saxton hesitated, was beaten by the bounce and Briers dived in for a try which he converted to reduce the half-time deficit to a more manageable eight points.

Warrington could not carry that momentum into the second half and Castleford extended their lead through Bartrim's penalty before the Wolves' inability to wrap up the ball carrier caught them out again. Andy Johnson who got the ball out of a three-man tackle for Saxton to score.

Briers briefly revived Warrington's hopes with another of his isolated moments of brilliance, hurling a long pass to Rob Smyth, but they could make no further in-roads on Castleford's lead. With five minutes to play, Hudson made it safe with his second try, arriving to support Johnson's break and score under the posts to seal the win.

Warrington: Penny, Smyth, Grose, Sibbit, Appo, Briers, N Wood, Fozzard, Clarke, Hilton, Guisset, Wainwright, Domic. Subs used: Gleeson, Burns, P Wood, Stevens.

Castleford: Saxton, Pryce, Gibson, Eagar, Rogers, Orr, Healey, Sykes, Hudson, Lynch, Johnson, Fritz, Bartrim. Subs used: Hepworth, Blakeway, Smith, Sampson.

Ref: I Smith (Oldham).