Warrington Wolves 54 Castleford Tigers 6: Depleted Castleford suffer at the hands of Warrington

Warrington led 38-0 at half-time before taking their foot off the gas to spare the Tigers a heavier defeat.

Cas, who conceded 110 points in two league defeats by Warrington last season, were missing Rangi Chase, Richie Owen and goalkicker Kirk Dixon, calling up Academy winger Josh Atkinson to bolster their numbers.

Chase started a three-match ban for a tackle which left Tangi Ropati with a broken jaw in last week’s shock cup knockout at Featherstone.

The Tigers then suffered an early blow with Nick Youngquest forced off in a daze after only two minutes.

Warrington recalled Hodgson, Chris Bridge, Atkins and Simon Grix – rested for the cup win at Keighley – but Richie Myler, Garreth Carvell, Adrian Morley and Michael Monaghan were missing. Youngsters Gareth O’Brien and Brad Dwyer kept their places for the Wolves, who had a ‘try’ by Chris Bridge disallowed after three minutes for a double movement.

But Bridge did not take long to open Warrington’s account with a long-range try after taking Lee Briers pass straight from a scrum.

Hodgson’s conversion made it 6-0 and he next added the extras to Trent Waterhouse’s effort after the forward outjumped Cas’s defence to collect Briers’s kick.

Cas faced an uphill task which became even tougher when Mickey Higham and Briers sent Joel Monaghan crashing through poor defence to open up an 18-0 lead midway through the first half.

Bridge was a constant threat to the Tigers with his smart play sending Monaghan over for a second try in three minutes.

The Tigers did manage to cross the line through Ryan McGoldrick but the ‘try’ was disallowed by referee Robert Hicks.

It was no surprise when Warrington added a fifth try as Hodgson finished off a slick handling move but missed his second conversion.

Hodgson finished in style with Chris Riley’s electrifying burst creating the chance for the Australian to score and land the goal.

Warrington even had time to add another try via Atkins’s breakaway to make it 38-0 at the break.

Lee Mitchell saved a try chasing back to stop Briers early in the second half. Briers hobbled off after the tackle as a precaution for Saturday’s cup-tie against Bradford.

Atkins was denied another score by determined defence as Cas showed more fight after the interval.

It took Warrington until the 56th minute to add to their tally with Atkins bagging his second try.

Cas finally breached the Wolves defence when Mitchell plunged over from Danny Orr’s short pass.

But Warrington finished with late tries from Riley and Grix.

Warrington: Hodgson, Riley, C. Bridge, Atkins, J. Monaghan, Briers, O’Brien, Hill, Higham, Wood, Waterhouse, Westwood, McCarthy. Substitutes: Dwyer, Grix, Cooper, Harrison.

Castleford: Youngquest, Atkinson, Thompson, Ferres, Griffin, McGoldrick, Orr, Massey, Milner, Walker, Mitchell, Holmes, Emmitt. Substitutes: Huby, Jones, Clark, Millington.

Referee: R Hicks (Oldham).