Super League: Warrington Wolves 38-14 Castleford Tigers

Gareth Widdop scored his first career hat-trick with his treble

Gareth Widdop continued his excellent form in 2021 with a hat-trick to guide Warrington to victory over Castleford and make it four wins from seven.

First-half tries from Josh Charnley, Toby King and Widdop gave the Wire a first-half edge, while Cas scored through Jake Trueman and Jordan Turner.

Half-back Widdop crossed twice after the break to pull Warrington clear and collect his hat-trick.

King and Daryl Clark stretched out the lead before Turner's consolation.

This game was a dress rehearsal for the Challenge Cup semi-final between the two teams on 5 June.

They also met on the opening weekend of the season - a game won by Cas.

And it brought Tigers boss Daryl Powell face-to-face with his employers for 2022, having agreed to take over from Steve Price next term.

Since their opening-weekend reverse, Price's Warrington have not lost a game and only a draw at Hull had denied them maximum points.

Key to their attacking punch was the left edge - even without Greg Inglis - as King profited with two scores on the back of that threat and Charnley also finished smartly after sharp hands.

Widdop's support play, backing up the offloading game of the forwards, was another positive feature and his sometimes maligned combination with Blake Austin also looked more cohesive.

For Powell and the Tigers, the defeat was tough to take after their recent lapse against Hull KR.

There were some mitigating circumstances as the absence of Niall Evalds, Peter Mata'utia, Grant Millington and Liam Watts bit.

Warrington-linked Trueman finished off a superb break by Paul McShane for the Tigers' first score, while Turner twice went in on the left after sparkling moves.

Warrington boss Steve Price:

"Gareth has been competing and been class all season and I thought he was the best player on the park.

"He's in a really good place and his chemistry with Blake Austin and Stef Ratchford was really pleasing.

"I feel he has been the form half-back in the competition so hopefully Shaun Wane will be taking notice.

"I thought it was a great response to last week with a short turnaround and we started to find a bit rhythm and came up with a really pleasing result. The spine of Gareth, Blake and Stefan deserve a big rap because the chemistry and rhythm they delivered in the performance was solid.

"We held our nerve at the start of the second half and when we got some field position we scored a couple of quick tries which showed the attacking prowess we have. We just needed to be more ruthless at times."

Castleford coach Daryl Powell:

"Pete was at the game but has a back issue that kept him out today and we lost Niall in the team run and that causes you more problems than anything losing your full-back and we had Gareth O'Brien injured as well.

"We had 10 or 11 players injured today and they would all get in the 17 so it's a tough one and you just have to cop it and move on.

"It was always going to be tough for us looking at our team sheet and I thought the boys battled really hard with so many missing or out of position.

"At half-time were were still in with a good shot at the game but Warrington just had too much for us in the end.

"We looked a bit clunky as you would expect with so many positional changes but at the end of the day we have bigger battles to fight and two big weeks ahead of us.

"We have Leeds next week and then Warrington again in a Challenge Cup semi-final so we will regroup quickly, hopefully get some of the boys back and will be a semblance of the team we know we can be."

Warrington: Ratchford; Thewlis, Mamo, King, Charnley; Austin, Widdop; Hill, D. Clark, Cooper, Currie, Hughes, Philbin.

Interchanges: J. Clark, Mulhern, Davis, Butler.

Castleford: Clark; Olpherts, Mata'utia, Shenton, Turner; Richardson, Trueman, Massey, McShane, Smith, Griffin, Sene-Lefao, Milner.

Interchanges: Hepi, Matagi, Peachey, Martin.

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