29th August 2020: Wigan 30 Castleford 22
Posted by Bilko on August 30 2020 - 15:32
Extended News

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Saturday 29th August 2020
Wigan Warriors 30 Castleford Tigers 22
Halliwell Jones Stadium, Warrington
 (Switched from DW Stadium, Wigan due to Covid-19 Restrictions)
Betfred Super League 25 - Round 18 of 20
 (Brought Forward from 25th/26th October 2020)

Kick Off 4:15pm

  

- Wigan       - Castleford    
6 Bevan French       34 Gareth O'Brien  T   
2 Liam Marshall       2 Derrell Olpherts  T   
1 Zak Hardaker    G5    17 Alex Foster    
23 Jake Bibby       4 Michael Shenton  T   
5 Joe Burgess  T      21 James Clare    
7 Thomas Leuluai       6 Jake Trueman    
31 Jackson Hastings       7

Danny Richardson

    G3 
20

Liam Byrne

       8

Liam Watts

    
9 Sam Powell  T      9 Paul McShane    
19

Joe Bullock

  T      16

George Griffin

    
11 Willie Isa       11 Oliver Holmes    
12 Liam Farrell  T      12 Mike McMeeken    
30

Ethan Havard

       14

Nathan Massey

  T   
Interchange:
10 George Burgess       10 Grant Millington    
14 Ben Flower  T      13 Adam Milner    
16 Morgan Smithies       15 Jesse Sene-Lefao    
28 Harry Smith       19 Daniel Smith    
               
Report: 

Wigan came from 12-0 down to complete a third victory in a row since the league restarted following the Covid Lockdown.

Originally they were meant to play Catalan Dragons but a Covid outbreak within the Perpignan outfit saw Cas come off bye week standby and become Wigan's opponents at four days notice. Something the league will just have to get used to.

It didn't seem to be too much hassle for Cas though. They found a 12-0 lead in 21 minutes with tries from Gareth O'Brien and Nathan Massey both being converted by Danny Richardson.

Wigan had been flat and guilty of inviting Castleford on during the early period. At times we look very comfortable defending but the tries conceded were soft and eventually if we don't iron that out of our performances it will catch up with us. However, now is not necessarily the time to be needing to nail 80 minute efforts. In three weeks time it might be Castleford again in the cup and that will be far more important.

Despite these minor lapses during games, Wigan are proving difficult to pin down at the moment. When they do get on the attack they can find ways to score from either close or deep range and here Castleford's lead was whittled from 12 to 2 within less than two minutes.

First Sam Powell scooted over from close range before lovely play between Jackson Hastings and Liam Farrell got Joe Burgess over for his third try of the season in just his fourth appearance. Budgie may be off next year and only getting his chance because Dom Manfredi was mourning the loss of his dog but he's quite a handy back up to have ready when he's on his game.

Ben Flower has only played once this season, the game at Salford just before lockdown, but he looked in good nick here and scored a good power over on 34 to give Wigan the lead at 16-12 which held to half time.

Early in the second half Morgan Smithies was sin binned for a dangerous tackle. It'll be interesting what the disciplinary made of that but his absent saw Cas find an overlap to level the scores two minutes later with Derrell Olpherts try but Richardson failing to convert left the score 16-16.

Wigan did well to hold the sin bin period and came out of it with a penalty from Hardaker making it 18-16 on 54 minutes.

Another excellent showing from Liam Farrell was topped with the game crucial try just after the hour with him powering over in his favoured left side slot just. Hardaker's conversion making it 24-16.

The match was pretty much sealed with thirteen minutes to go with Joe Bullock getting off the nuddy run with his first try since April 2019. Hardaker's kick made it 30-16.

Castleford found a consolation when Hardaker dealt with a kick poorly to allow Michael Shenton to nick four points but although Richardson converted for 30-22 it proved enough. Albeit doubts of "here we go again" had crept in from the Wakefield game three weeks earlier.

So Wigan had gone four points clear for 24 hours at least but it still feels this side still has another gear that it can, or needs to, step up when the timing is right.
Scoring: 
15:05 Wigan 00 Castleford 04

Try: Gareth O'Brien
Wigan 00 Castleford 06

Conversion: Danny Richardson (1/1)
21:02 Wigan 00 Castleford 10

Try: Nathan Massey
Wigan 00 Castleford 12

Conversion: Danny Richardson (2/2)
24:22 Wigan 04 Castleford 12

Try: Sam Powell
Wigan 06 Castleford 12

Conversion: Zak Hardaker (1/1)
26:14 Wigan 10 Castleford 12

Try: Joe Burgess
Wigan 10 Castleford 12

Missed Conv: Zak Hardaker (1/2)
33:59 Wigan 14 Castleford 12

Try: Ben Flower
Wigan 16 Castleford 12

Conversion: Zak Hardaker (2/3)
Half` Time Wigan Warriors 16 Castleford Tigers 12
42:52 Wigan Sin Bin

Morgan Smithies (Dangerous Contact)
44:43 Wigan 16 Castleford 16

Try: Derrell Olpherts
Wigan 16 Castleford 16

Missed Conv: Danny Richardson (2/3)
53:22 Wigan 18 Castleford 16

Penalty Goal: Zak Hardaker (3/4)
60:53 Wigan 22 Castleford 16

Try: Liam Farrell
Wigan 24 Castleford 16

Conversion: Zak Hardaker (4/5)
67:36 Wigan 28 Castleford 16

Try: Joe Bullock
Wigan 30 Castleford 16

Conversion: Zak Hardaker (5/6)
73:54 Wigan 30 Castleford 20

Try: Michael Shenton
Wigan 30 Castleford 22

Conversion: Danny Richardson (3/4)
Full Time Wigan Warriors 30 Castleford Tigers 22
Referee: 

James Child
Attendance: 

0 (No Fans in Attendance due to Covid-19 Restrictions)
Note: 

Played as part of a double header at Warrington due to Covid-19 Restrictions..

This match was originally meant to be Round 25 of 29 in original fixture list and played on Friday 14th August 2020.

Originally Wigan had been due to play Catalan Dragons on this date but the fixture was switched to Castleford (on a bye week) on Tuesday 25th August due to failed Covid Testing at the Catalan Club.

Betfred Super League 25 - Round 10/18 Results
Sat 29 Aug Wigan 30 Castleford 22 (Played at Warrington) 0
Sat 29 Aug Leeds 50 Salford 12 (Played at Warrington) 0
Sun 30 Aug Hull KR 18 St Helens 32 (Played at Warrington) 0
Sun 30 Aug Huddersfield 12 Hull FC 31 (Played at Warrington) 0
Sun 30 Aug Warrington Wolves 36 Wakefield Trinity 0 0

2020 Betfred Super League 25 Table - After This Round
- Team P W D L F A Diff Pts
1 Wigan Warriors 9 7 0 2 221 136 +85 14
2 St Helens 9 6 0 3 228 109 +119 12
3 Warrington Wolves 9 6 0 3 179 110 +69 12
4 Catalan Dragons 7 5 0 2 216 141 +75 10
5 Leeds Rhinos 8 5 0 3 201 162 +39 10
6 Castleford Tigers 9 4 0 5 166 174 -8 8
7 Huddersfield Giants 8 4 0 4 144 155 -11 8
8 Hull FC 9 4 0 5 194 242 -48 8
9 Salford Red Devils 8 2 0 6 136 216 -80 4
10 Wakefield Trinity 8 2 0 6 115 226 -111 4
11 Hull Kingston Rovers 8 1 0 7 112 241 -129 2

Top 4 Qualify for Play Offs / No Relegation