Wakefield 16-36 Castleford: James Clare hat-trick helps Tigers rally to victory
Last Updated: 12/07/19 11:25pm
A James Clare hat-trick helped Castleford come from behind and beat derby rivals Wakefield 36-16.
Winger Clare grabbed three tries as the Tigers rallied from 8-0 down early to notch a convincing 20-point win at the Mobile Rocket Stadium.
Struggling Wakefield slumped to their eighth loss in their past nine matches, leaving them just four points off bottom place in Super League.
There was a tight start with both teams strong defensively and few openings in attack.
Clare went close to opening the scoring for Castleford early but was bundled into touch, and 10 minutes later the same happened to Mason Caton-Brown at the other end when he was dragged out.
Wakefield broke the deadlock in the 23rd minute after Castleford were penalised for holding Pauli Pauli down in the tackle.
Danny Brough stepped up and nailed the penalty kick from right in front to make it 2-0.
Two minutes later Kyle Wood extended the lead thanks to Tuoyo Egodo's error. The winger misjudged the bounce of Brough's kick and Wood picked up the scraps to touch down. Brough added the extras to take the score to 8-0.
But the Tigers clawed their way back into the contest through Egodo.
The winger made up for his early mistake with a great finish, brushing past two defenders to score in the corner.
Peter Mata'utia could not convert it, so Trinity remained ahead at 8-4. Another penalty to Wakefield was then kicked by Brough to extend the buffer six points.
But it did not last long thanks to a fantastic line break from Jake Trueman. The half-back raced away 40 metres, drew the full-back and put Oliver Holmes over for a try.
That meant Castleford went into half-time crucially just 10-8 behind.
In the second half the Tigers snuck in front due to the brilliance of Trueman. He set up Clare in the corner with a lovely floated cut-out pass.
Mata'utia added the extras to put the visitors ahead for the first time in the match.
Numerous Castleford errors then heaped pressure on their own try-line, but Trinity were unable to capitalise.
It proved costly as a fantastic aerial take from Jordan Rankin off Mata'utia's bomb led to their fourth try. The stand-off's conversion gave the Tigers a commanding 20-10 lead with just 22 minutes left.
However, Wakefield were not done yet and Brough crashed through some meek defence to score. He converted his own try to cut Castleford's lead to four points.
But Clare barged over for his second of the night, off Paul McShane's pass, to ease their fears, and three minutes later the winger was in again to seal the win.
Egodo made a break down the left and the ball was switched quickly to the right to catch Trinity for Clare to touch down.
There was still time for Rankin to pick up a double, with another spectacular leap to take a high kick for his second four-pointer. Mata'utia added the final touches his fourth conversion of the night to close proceedings.