Shenton's Inspiration Adds to Warrington's Wobble
Castleford beat Warrington 44-24, largely due to a sparkling performance from center Michael Shenton
Michael Shenton stepped up his challenge for a place in England's World Cup squad with a sparkling center's performance that inspired a stirring Castleford victory over a Warrington team who are wobbling worryingly ahead of the play-offs.
The tall 22-year-old completely outplayed Martin Gleeson, the man he hopes to understudy in Australia this autumn, and provided the final pass for four of Castleford's 10 tries, two of them scored by his wing Richie Owen. The unsung full-back Stuart Donlan also claimed two and on the other flank Michael Wainwright helped himself to a hat-trick as the Tigers belied their position at the bottom of the table just as they had in ambushing St Helens and Leeds at The Jungle this season. So much for the theory that the removal of relegation would leave the bottom club with nothing to play for.
On that basis Warrington should have been far more motivated last night with the chance to secure fourth position in the final table and home advantage in the first round of the play-offs. But there was no evidence of that as a porous defence condemned them to a third consecutive defeat. Castleford would have been out of sight by half-time if Kirk Dixon had converted more than one of their first five tries. Instead Matty Blythe brought the Wolves to within four points with a good individual score but Shenton then set up Owen's first, Lee Briers was sin-binned and Cas added two more scores while he was off.
Warrington rallied briefly with a second try for their prolific wing Chris Riley but Craig Huby then handled brilliantly to set up a try for Dixon - although he was no more successful when he took over the goal kicking, ending with one from four.
Castleford Tigers Donlan; Owen, Shenton, Dixon, Wainwright; McGoldrick, Dorn; Sargent, Henderson, Korkidas, Guttenbeil, Catic, Lupton. Interchange Leafa, Higgins, Huby, Boyle.
Warrington Wolves Hicks; Riley, Gleeson, King, Welch; Briers, Monaghan; Morley, Clarke, Parker, Mitchell, Westwood, Grix. Interchange Wood, Bracek, Cooper, Blythe.
Referee I Smith (Oldham)
The tall 22-year-old completely outplayed Martin Gleeson, the man he hopes to understudy in Australia this autumn, and provided the final pass for four of Castleford's 10 tries, two of them scored by his wing Richie Owen. The unsung full-back Stuart Donlan also claimed two and on the other flank Michael Wainwright helped himself to a hat-trick as the Tigers belied their position at the bottom of the table just as they had in ambushing St Helens and Leeds at The Jungle this season. So much for the theory that the removal of relegation would leave the bottom club with nothing to play for.
On that basis Warrington should have been far more motivated last night with the chance to secure fourth position in the final table and home advantage in the first round of the play-offs. But there was no evidence of that as a porous defence condemned them to a third consecutive defeat. Castleford would have been out of sight by half-time if Kirk Dixon had converted more than one of their first five tries. Instead Matty Blythe brought the Wolves to within four points with a good individual score but Shenton then set up Owen's first, Lee Briers was sin-binned and Cas added two more scores while he was off.
Warrington rallied briefly with a second try for their prolific wing Chris Riley but Craig Huby then handled brilliantly to set up a try for Dixon - although he was no more successful when he took over the goal kicking, ending with one from four.
Castleford Tigers Donlan; Owen, Shenton, Dixon, Wainwright; McGoldrick, Dorn; Sargent, Henderson, Korkidas, Guttenbeil, Catic, Lupton. Interchange Leafa, Higgins, Huby, Boyle.
Warrington Wolves Hicks; Riley, Gleeson, King, Welch; Briers, Monaghan; Morley, Clarke, Parker, Mitchell, Westwood, Grix. Interchange Wood, Bracek, Cooper, Blythe.
Referee I Smith (Oldham)
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