Castleford 54-4 Wigan: Tigers hammer Super League champions
By PA Sport
Last Updated: 29/04/17 9:52pm
Scintillating Castleford roared back to the top of the table in style with a 54-4 rout of Wigan, their biggest Super League win over the Warriors.
Scrum-half Luke Gale needed to pass a head test before kick-off to take his place in the Tigers side and he gave the Warriors an almighty headache with a 20-point haul, comprising eight goals from nine attempts and one of their nine tries.
The rout enabled Castleford to complete the double over the champions and demonstrate a sizzling return to form after back-to-back defeats by St Helens and Hull FC had cast some doubt over their title credentials.
The victory topped the Yorkshire club's previous biggest win over Wigan, a 42-14 success in 2015, and followed a similar 66-10 rout of Leeds earlier this year.
Wigan had the chance themselves to go top after posting three successive wins but little went right for them all night.
They had two players sin-binned and lost three to injury, including stand-off George Williams, which could be a worry for England coach Wayne Bennett ahead of Saturday's Test match against Samoa.
Gale, on the other hand, showed he will go into the international in peak form, along with club-mates Mike McMeeken and Zak Hardaker, while centre Michael Shenton presented a powerful argument for a place in England's World Cup squad.
Gale made his mark a minute into the game when he supported a break by Shenton and, although he was hauled down 10 metres short of the line by full-back Morgan Escare, the Wigan defence could not regroup in time to prevent loose forward Adam Milner forcing his way over from the resulting play-the-ball.
Shenton then accepted Hardaker's pass to cross for a try himself and Gale's second goal made it 12-0 after only eight minutes.
Both teams suffered early disruption, with centre Anthony Gelling going off for Wigan and Castleford stand-off Ben Roberts limping down the tunnel, but the Tigers had the luxury of a like-for-like replacement on the bench in Rangi Chase, who had been on stand-by for Gale.
Willie Isa took Gelling's place while Chase slotted effortlessly into Castleford's well-oiled machine as Gale extended their lead to 14-0 with a 19th-minute penalty.
Wigan had prop Frank-Paul Nuuausala sin-binned for dissent but scored their only try while down to 12 men, Sam Powell handing off Milner to stroll over the line.
Escare was wide with the conversion attempt when he had a red haze from a smoke bomb among the Wigan fans behind the posts in his eyeline and they conceded straight away after gifting the ball back to their opponents, substitute Matt Cook bulldozing his way over with his first touch of the ball.
McMeeken showed his class with a fend on Williams and a nice turn of pace to stroll through for Castleford's next try as Gale extended the lead to 26-4 by the break.
Wigan's debutant hooker Josh Ganson, son of referees' boss Steve Ganson, was unfortunate to have a try disallowed just before half-time when the in-goal judge ruled he failed to ground the ball, and any hope of a revival disappeared when Williams failed to re-appear for the second half.
Things went from bad to worse for the visitors when Escare was sin-binned for a high tackle on Gale and this time they conceded three tries while down to 12 men.
Winger Greg Minikin took Chase's cut-out pass to score his 11th try of the campaign, while Gale grabbed his 10th after working a one-two with Grant Millington, who supported a break by hooker Paul McShane to go over on 52 minutes.
More slick handling saw centre Jake Webster power his way over wide out and Hardaker sent Minikin over for his second of the match as the Tigers piled on the agony for their stricken visitors, who had Flower carried off on 59 minutes.
The Yorkshire side were in such total control that they able to bring Gale off eight minutes from the end but McShane followed his vice-captain's lead when took over the goalkicking duties by landing a touchline conversion.
