It was only two rounds ago when a dramatic Mason Lino drop
goal sealed the win for Wakefield Trinity and broke the hearts of the
Castleford Tigers, and in the final game at the Magic Weekend in Newcastle the
two were again pitched against one another with all the pre-match speculation that it could be a classic on a day of classics.
The Tigers were given a six-point start on the coupon as
Wakefield looked for the victory that would lift them into eighth spot in the
table above the Warrington Wolves side who had just lost out to Wigan in a
thrilling encounter.
It was a classic encounter in Rivals round, but the Tigers
won both preceding encounters in 2023, the year that a very different Wakefield
were relegated from Super League,
Good early pressure from Wakefield resulted in an eighth
minute try as Max Jowitt dummied the pass to the left and dropped the shoulder
to go in from ten metres out. Jowitt added
the extra two.
The second try for Trinity came on fifteen minutes after the
got the luck of the bounce, Mike McMeeken picking up the loose ball and passing
inside to Caius Faatili to canter over under the sticks. Jowitt added the extras
for 12-0.
Great tackling back by Lachlan Walmsley prevented Alex Mellor
from registering the opening points for Castleford as he was held up over the
line.
Castleford finally got on the board on thirty-two with flick
passes and great handling in a move to the right from the back of the scrum, Josh
Simm taking the final pass and coming back inside, running rings around three
defenders to go in for the points. Rowan Milnes was unable to add the extras.
Four minutes before the interval a diving Walmsley leapt for
the corner and grounded the ball in the right corner. Jowitt hit the near post
with the conversion attempt.
The Wakefield lead was further extended just two minutes
into the second half, Tom Johnstone acrobatically grounding a Mason Lino chip kick
to the corner. Jowitt converted brilliantly from the touchline.
The Tigers again ride their luck on fifty-eight, Sam Wood taking
a looping pass from Asi and going in after a high kick was tapped back to the stand-off.
Milnes was wide with the conversion
attempt, Castleford behind by 8-22.
Wakefield outpaced the Tigers again on sixty-eight, Walmsley
picking up his second of the game as he took another Lino looping pass and
leaping for the corner to ground one-handed. Jowitt was just wide with the
conversion attempt but the game was won.
An electric try from Faatili, his second of the game, was
the try of the match, if not the weekend. He took the pass on his own thirty,
stepped past a tackler and then sprinted through the broken defence to score
under the sticks. Jowitt added the conversion for 32-8, the scoreline embarrassing for the Tigers.
Wakefield join three other clubs on ten points in the
mid-table battle for the lower play off places. The win takes them above Warrington
Wolves and into eighth place in the table, well placed for an assault on the
top six. It’s an eighth loss of the season for the Tigers who are just two points
ahead of Salford and Huddersfield and they find themselves in a real scrap to
avoid the wooden spoon. Danny McGuire will be disappointed that his side didn’t
put up much of a fight, a backward step on the game a couple of rounds ago.
Castleford Tigers: Hoy, Simm (T), Cini, Wood (T), Senior,
Asi, Milnes (G 0/2), Amone, Rimbu, Dezaria, Lawler, Mellor, Singleton. Subs: Okoro,
Westerman, Salabio, Atkin. 18th Man: Horne.
Wakefield Trinity: Jowitt (T, G 4/6), Walmsley (2T), Hall,
Pratt, Johnstone (T), Trueman, Lino, McMeeken, Hood, Faatili (2T), Croft, Griffin,
Pitts. Subs: Scott, Vagana, Cozza, Smith.
18th Man: Nikotemo.
Half-Time: 4-16.
Full-Time: 8-32.
Score Progression: 0-4, 0-6, 0-10, 0-12, 4-12, 4-16 : HT: 4-20,
4-22, 8-22, 8-26, 8-30, 8-32 :FT.
Lead Exchanges: Wakefield.
Referee: Tom Grant.
