Castleford 42-10 Wakefield: Tigers take third and book semi-final against Wigan
By PA Sport
Last Updated: 21/09/18 11:40pm
Castleford booked a semi-final trip to Wigan as they continued their domination of Wakefield with a routine 42-10 rout of their depleted West Yorkshire neighbours.
Last season's Super League Grand Finalists have quietly gone about their business in 2018 and appear in good shape for a return to Old Trafford after a fifth straight win, their 11th in a row against Trinity.
Wakefield coach Chris Chester, down to his last 17 players amid an injury crisis, sent his team out to play an expansive game, but it backfired as Castleford raced into a commanding lead thanks to Greg Eden's two tries and one from Greg Minikin.
The Tigers were guilty of overplaying themselves after a strange start to their final home game of the year and Trinity came back into it through tries from Bill Tupou and Reece Lyne either side of Grant Millington's effort.
But Eden completed his third hat-trick in seven games and added a fourth before Junior Moors completed the scoring.
Wakefield indicated their intentions inside the opening seconds of the Super 8s clash as Scott Grix chipped over the top after receiving the kick-off.
But the full-back could only find opposite number Peter Mata'utia and it proved to be a costly mistake, with Gale executing a chip of his own to perfection to give the juggling Eden a finish out wide.
Grix's eventful start continued as he helped win the ball back for his side from the restart and then came up with a try-saving tackle to deny Michael Shenton.
But a head injury ended his fun and Wakefield were staring down the barrel of a huge defeat after Eden added his second try and Minikin got in on the act.
Eden coasted in out wide after a simple shift from right to left and, with Tyler Randell in the sin bin following a spear tackle on Nathan Massey, Minikin slid over in the other corner from another Mata'utia pass.
Gale's third goal made it 18-0 after 15 minutes and it got worse for Trinity when James Batchelor and Jordan Crowther were forced off with injuries.
Crowther returned just before half-time after passing his head test and Wakefield were still just about in the game at the interval after Minikin had a try ruled out for a forward pass from Jake Trueman.
Trinity made a promising start to the second half and were celebrating their first try on 47 minutes when Tupou, filling in on the wing for Tom Johnstone, collected Matty Ashurst's floated pass to stroll in.
Millington charged over next to the posts as Castleford hit back, but Wakefield refused to go away and doubled their try tally courtesy of Lyne's strong finish.
There were signs of tiredness in Wakefield's defence when Eden motored through a huge hole with Trinity still regrouping after Mata'utia's break and quick hands from the Tigers put the winger over for his fourth try.
Shenton gave Castleford a scare as he hobbled off with a leg injury and there was still time for Moors to cross after unselfish work from Paul McShane.
Match Reaction
Chris Chester praised his side's effort after their loss but conceded that everything that they tried just didn't come off.
Daryl Powell was left frustrated by some of Trinity's tactics but hailed the way that his side handled the encounter at The Mend-A-Hose Jungle.
