Warrington Wolves 12-14 Castleford Tigers: Visitors hold on for Super League play-off win
By Sky Sports Rugby League
Last Updated: 20/09/19 4:54pm
Castleford Tigers secured their first away play-off win for 20 years and dashed Warrington Wolves' double dreams with a 14-12 win in Super League's elimination final.
Adam Milner's try, converted by Peter Mata'utia, put Castleford 6-0 up at half-time after the Wolves' Stefan Ratchford had seen an early penalty kick at goal go narrowly wide.
The Challenge Cup winners had a possible try for Daryl Clark ruled out by the video referee as well, but hit back through Jake Mamo early in the second half.
However, a converted try from Jordan Rankin and a Mata'utia penalty sealed the win, with the Tigers holding out to progress to the next round despite a late converted score from Chris Hill.
The defeat means the Wolves' 64-year wait for the league title goes on, while Daryl Powell's side's reward for their gritty triumph is a trip to Wigan Warriors or Salford Red Devils in next Thursday's semi-final.
Warrington ended the game a man short after centre Bryson Goodwin, playing his final match for the club, was sin-binned for kicking the ball away in frustration while the defeat brought to a sudden end to the distinguished career of 38-year-old former England forward Ben Westwood as well.
The Wolves went into the game with just one win in their previous eight league games - the worst record of any team in the league over the last two months - and they lost influential playmaker Blake Austin to injury at half-time but were still able to take the game down to the wire.
Castleford were without a host of regulars, having lost an entire back-row in last week's defeat at Wigan, and head coach Powell re-shuffled his half-backs in a bid to spark an attack that lacked teeth against the Cherry and Whites.
As befitting a sudden-death match, there were plenty of nerves on show throughout a scrappy first half. Even the normally reliable Ratchford was wide with his penalty attempt.
However, the Wolves had most of the pressure and centre Goodwin managed to rumble his way over the Castleford line only to be held up.
The sole try of the first half came on 27 minutes when loose forward Milner, fresh off the interchange bench, won the race to Paul McShane's grubber kick, opening the scoring with only his second touch.
The Tigers created the position with some aggressive defence, but Warrington certainly gave them a helping hand with some sloppy attacking play.
Austin gave his side hope with a break only to be thwarted by full-back Jordan Rankin and, to compound his misery, he hurt his right knee in the tackle.
Former Castleford hooker Clark looked to have reached the line five minutes later, only for video official Ben Thaler to overrule match referee Chris Kendall in disallowing the try and the visitors finished the first half on top.
Austin limped on until half-time but failed to appear for the second half - yet his replacement Mamo, who slotted in at full-back to enable Ratchford to move into a playmaking role, instantly gave his side renewed hope by scoring within two minutes of the restart.
The position was created by Ben Currie's successful charge-down of Peter Mata'utia's attempted clearance kick and Mamo finished decisively at the corner.
Ratchford levelled the scores with a touchline conversion, but the home side fell behind once more when Rankin sliced through their left-sided defence for the Tigers' second try and Mata'utia kicked his second goal.
The reintroduction of Man of Steel contender Liam Watts for the last quarter enabled Castleford to strengthen their grip on the contest, with the prop earning the penalty that Mata'utia kicked to open up an eight-point lead.
Wolves captain Hill grabbed a lifeline for his side on 69 minutes when he touched down Clark's stabbed kick to the line and Ratchford's second goal cut the gap to two points.
Ratchford had a chance to tie the scores for a second time, but his ambitious penalty from halfway fell short of the target as the Yorkshiremen hung on for a memorable victory.
Match reaction
