Super League: Castleford defeat Wakefield 46-20
Last Updated: 24/07/16 7:35pm
Castleford overturned a half-time deficit to run out 46-20 winners over Wakefield in the final round of the regular season.
Wakefield led 20-16 with the third quarter drawing to a close before the Tigers added five tries in the last 23 minutes for a comfortable victory that puts Castleford in sixth place in the Super League standings.
The defeat means Wakefield finish eighth and would have ended up in the Qualifiers if not for Salford's six-point deduction for a salary cap breach. The Wildcats can now turn their attention to next Saturday's Challenge Cup semi-final against Warrington, when they will aim to reach their first Wembley final for 37 years.
Both teams went into the final match of the regular season with depleted line-ups but Wakefield, who gave a debut to youngster Brad Moules, looked to have coped the better as they opened up a lead early in the second half before Castleford roared back with 30 points, with new loan signing Andre Savelio getting among the tries.
There was little hint of the one-sided scoreline after Wakefield made a flying start with two tries in the first 12 minutes.
Jacob Miller collected a high kick from half-back partner Liam Finn to score the first and then combined with him to get Arundel over for his first.
Finn kicked one goal to put his side into a 10-0 lead but slow-starting Castleford were sparked into action by a thrilling opportunist try from winger Greg Minikin, who swooped on a careless pass from his opposite number Reece Lyne and went 90 metres practically untouched to score.
Luke Gale missed the difficult conversion but was on target on 24 minutes to level the scores after makeshift centre Oliver Holmes won the race to the scrum-half's kick to the line.
Wakefield still looked the more dangerous side and they regained the lead four minutes later when Arundel took Finn's pass to go through a gap for his second try, and Finn's goal made it 16-10.
The visitors levelled the scores for a second time five minutes into the second half when Savelio took McShane's pass to romp through the Trinity defence, but they soon fell behind once more when Lyne leapt above Minikin to collect Finn's kick and touch down at the corner.
That was as good as it got for the home side, however, as they capitulated in the final quarter.
A charging run from Savelio created the position for Gale to touch down and Gale's third goal put the Tigers in front for the first time.
Loose forward Junior Moors charged over for a fifth try on 63 minutes and Minikin claimed his second after collecting Gale's pinpoint kick to the corner.
As Wakefield wilted, Castleford cut loose in the final 19 minutes, with substitute Tom Holmes and full-back Ryan Hampshire adding tries and Gale taking his goal tally to seven from eight attempts.