Super League: Denny Solomona stars as Castleford beat Wakefield
By PA Sport
Last Updated: 03/09/16 11:12am
Denny Solomona crossed for a hat-trick as Castleford condemned rivals Wakefield to another Super League Super 8s defeat.
Though the Tigers' charge was halted on a handful of occasions, with Wakefield's tries coming either side of the interval, the hosts were in control from the outset.
The Tigers took a convincing 26-point advantage into half-time and showed little remorse after the break, running out 46-22 victors.
Errors proved costly for Wakefield during the early stages of the derby, as their third in quick succession resulted in the game's first points.
The Tigers launched an assault from the scrum base and scrum-half Luke Gale fired a cut-out pass wide to Solomona, who dived over in the corner.
The Wildcats forced a drop-out from the resulting restart and Reece Lyne grasped an opportunity to score after Scott Moore was held up over the whitewash.
But Daryl Powell's men powered forward once again as front rower Gadwin Springer raced 40 metres to lay another platform. Rangi Chase then dummied his way around a trio of would-be tacklers before crossing under the uprights. Gale, who had assisted in the Kiwi's efforts, added the extras to make it 10-4.
Solomona then scored his second before his haul was completed when he crashed over in the corner, after once again beating several defenders.
Tom Johnstone hit back for the away side, but Castleford still finished the opening half strongly.
Gale went on to take his tally to five successful conversions from six attempts, taking his career record past 500, as he improved late touchdowns from Luke Dorn and Paul McShane.
Wakefield began the second half brightly, reducing the arrears via a Bill Tupou try. However, as they did in the first half, Chris Chester's men proved incapable of preventing their West Yorkshire counterparts from regaining control of the tie. Castleford were back in the driving seat on 50 minutes as Gale converted a Jake Webster score.
Johnstone then intercepted a wild Dorn pass on the hour and galloped 70 metres before being brought to ground short of the line by Ryan Hampshire. Hampshire was ordered to the sin-bin for holding down, and slowing the eventual play-the-ball.
Even with 12 men the Tigers held Wakefield out in repeat sets but pressure eventually told and Nick Scruton barged over to claim the Wildcats' fourth try, which former Castleford man Liam Finn converted.
Johnstone grabbed his second of the night 13 minutes from time, but it was man-of-the-match Gale who had the final say with a try and conversion.
