Super League: Castleford 26-42 Warrington
By PA Sport
Last Updated: 17/07/16 7:40pm
Four tries from Super League's leading scorer Denny Solomona were in vain as Warrington turned on the style to run out 42-26 winners at Castleford.
Solomona scored a first-half hat-trick to help the Tigers lead 18-16 at the break but his fourth, which took his total for the season to 27, was nothing more than a consolation after the visitors had put the game to bed with 26 unanswered points.
Once the lead changed hands for a fifth time early in the second half, the Wolves went on to dominate and claim an important victory that takes them to within a point of joint leaders Hull and Wigan with one round of the regular Super League season to go.
Not even the re-appearance of Rangi Chase, who was introduced on 22 minutes to start his second spell with the club, nor a superb attacking display from full-back Luke Dorn on his 250th Super League appearance, could save Castleford from a second-half onslaught.
Tigers forward Frankie Mariano, who is making a marked belated impact on an injury-hit season, began the game as he finished his last by tearing through the defence for an eye-catching try to give his side an early lead.
Warrington's Ryan Atkins was making the 200th appearance of his career but he was outshone by his centre partner Rhys Evans, who is noted more for his defence than his attack but showed some real flair to put the visitors in front with two tries in five minutes.
He showed a nice sidestep and swerve to get past Dorn for his first and then picked off a Luke Gale pass to sprint 80 metres for his second.
Kurt Gidley, back in the side after a two-match injury absence, converted Evans' second try to make it 10-4 but the Tigers stormed back in front when Dorn demonstrated his class to carve out two tryscoring opportunities for Solomona, who did not disappoint.
Gale was on target with the boot at the third attempt to put his side 14-10 ahead before the impressive Stefan Ratchford sliced through the Castleford defence straight from a goal-line drop-out to regain the lead for the visitors.
The Tigers were back in front just before half-time when Solomona gathered Chris Sandow's attacking kick to the corner and hared 90 metres upfield to complete his hat-trick.
Warrington lost Gidley with concussion early in the second half but that did not stop them regaining the lead, with replacement hooker Brad Dwyer catching the home defence napping with a quickly-taken tapped penalty just short of the line.
Sandow, taking over the goalkicking duties, added the conversion and also slotted a penalty goal before producing a clean break to get second rower Ben Currie over for the Wolves' fifth try on 55 minutes.
That was the signal for Warrington to cut loose as former Castleford favourites Daryl Clark and Joe Westerman combined to get substitute centre Toby King over for his first try of the season and Sandow made it four out of four with the boot.
Clark then went over for the visitors' seventh try and Gidley, by then back on the field, kicked his third goal before a late Castleford rally brought them consolation tries to Solomona and centre Ben Crooks.
