Super League: Wigan Warriors claim 26-16 victory over Castleford Tigers in opening round

Jake Wardle scores Wigan's fifth try against Castleford

A brace of tries by Zack Eckersley helped Wigan start the new Super League season with a 26-16 win at Castleford.

Warriors trailed for much of the opening half until efforts by Liam Marshall and Bevan French before the interval handed the 2025 Grand Final runners-up a slender advantage at the break.

Eckersley's 43rd-minute try cemented Wigan's grip on proceedings before he added another and Jake Wardle made the points safe when he crossed 13 minutes from time. Castleford rallied late on, but they had too much to do.

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After a weekend of surprise results, with champions Hull KR defeated, Wigan looked set to suffer the same fate when Liam Hood opened the scoring after 10 minutes.

It stayed 6-0 until the 34th minute when Marshall grabbed the first of five tries for Warriors.

After the conversion was unsuccessful, French went over and finished off a slick move to ensure Wigan were 10-6 up at half-time.

Mikaele Ravalawa of Castleford celebrating his try

Matt Peet's men were in the ascendancy and Eckersley opened his account three minutes into the second half before he virtually wrapped up the points with a second score after 62 minutes.

It was followed by a try for Wardle, but Tigers finished strongly after Warriors' Adam Keighran was sent to the sin-bin, with Mikaele Ravalawa and George Lawler able to add consolation efforts in the final 11 minutes.

Peet: We were decent when we got going

Wigan head coach Matt Peet: "For large parts defensively I thought we were very good against a team who certainly asked questions.

"On the pitch at Castleford you always feel like you are defending your own line which is a test.

"I liked our last plays and at times when we got going with the ball we were decent. We will get better."

Matt Peet and Oliver Partington celebrates Wigan's win

'We made it hard for ourselves'

Castleford head coach Ryan Carr: "We made it too hard on ourselves. If we got some other moments right and didn't make the game of footy so hard on ourselves the scoreline would have been much closer coming into the last 20.

"We were playing against good opponents in Wigan. They've been together a long time, they're well drilled and they know what they're doing.

"We knew we were in for a fight, but we were definitely up for it. We just didn't manage the game well at certain times."

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