FLOWERED UP
Daryl fumes as Warriors go clear
FURIOUS Daryl Powell laid into his Tigers after they crashed to their third successive defeat.
Castleford were joint top with Wigan before lockdown but they were outclassed by a gritty Warriors side.
Powell said: “We have got to improve because that is a big step back. We were disappointing.
“We went 12-0 up and then there’s a big turning point with a couple of errors that really hurt us.
“It took us until the game had gone to get the energy we wanted.”
Wigan are now four points clear at the top, and six clear of Castleford, but they found themselves up against it at the start.
Gareth O’Brien and Nathan Massey both crossed for the Tigers, with Wigan’s problems growing with a match-ending injury to speedy winger Liam Marshall.
But they came roaring back with three tries in nine minutes from Sam
Powell, Joe Burgess and Ben Flower to take a 16-12 advantage at half-time.
Castleford had to take this fixture with only four days’ notice after Wigan’s original opponents Catalans pulled out after registering four positive Covid tests.
And the
Tigers, gers, who ho were due to have a weekend off, seemed determined to get some reward with another strong start to the second half. They recovered from the shock of seeing winger James Clare carried off on a stretcher after a crusher tackle from Morgan Smithies.
The Wigan youngster was sin-binned and Powell said: “It was a terrible tackle. There were a couple of crushers, which is disappointing.” Within a minute of play restarting after the lengthy delay, winger Derrell Olpherts darted over for an unconverted try to level the scores.
But once again Cas lost their way, allowing Wigan to get an upper hand that they never released. Mistakes by Paul McShane and Mike McMeeken set up a try for forward Liam Farrell, with the veteran star timing his run superbly to take a Tommy Leuluai pass.
Minutes later Joe Bullock barged his way over on the back of a 40-20 from youngster Harry Smith, with Zak Hardaker taking his goals tally to five.
Michael Shenton grabbed a late consolation touchdown for the Tigers, thanks to a deft kick by Jake Trueman despite struggling with a back injury.
Wigan coach Adrian Lam said: “I am really happy. That was a pretty tough game and we had a couple of injuries and players rotated around which was not ideal.
“But I am really proud of their efforts. We went behind by 12 at one stage and it could have become a long game but I am really pleased that we kept turning up for each other.”