Warriors battle past Tigers

Wigan made it two wins from two at the start of the new season though they made hard work of it in their 28-16 win over Castleford.

A pair of tries from Thomas Leuluai and six goals from Pat Richards made sure the Warriors came out on top in a surprisingly close encounter at the JJB.

Castleford led 8-2 midway through the opening half and threatened to mount a late comeback when Mark Leafa barged his way over.

In the end they came up short, though coach Terry Matterson can be proud of his Tigers, particularly when he had just 18 fit bodies in his squad to choose from.

The Wigan fans will have been mightily relieved to have seen their team come away with a positive result after getting a nasty sense of de ja vu at one stage.

Bad memories

Brian Noble's side were beaten twice at home by promoted Hull KR last year, and Peter Lupton's try after 20 minutes suggested the latest new boys to the engage Super League could repeat the Robins' feat of 2007.

The second-rower rumbled in under the posts following good work from centre Ryan McGoldrick as the visitors took a shock lead.

A Richards penalty had put the hosts ahead on eight minutes but they failed to build on their early advantage, particularly after the Tigers had pounced.

Leuluai dropped a short ball with the line at his mercy and then was not seen by Trent Barrett, who tried to dummy his way past the last defender rather than passing off for his half-back partner to finish.

It looked like the Warriors would go in at the break trailing when Richard Mathers' effort was wiped out by referee Ian Smith.

However, with the last play of the half Richards soared high to claim Barrett's mighty bomb, the winger also converting his own try to make it 8-6.

Quick-fire tries

The late strike before the interval clearly boosted Wigan, who crossed twice in the space of five minutes at the start of the second 40 minutes to build what would turn out to be a crucial cushion.

Another beautiful kick from Barrett led to Liam Colbon notching the first before Leuluai finally got his name on the scoresheet.

Richards managed to land one of the two conversion attempts and a second penalty in the 55th minute made it 20-6 - seemingly game over in terms of the match as a contest.

Yet the Tigers did not give up, Tom Haberecht surging down the right wing to find his way to the line.

Even when Leuluai completed his brace, accepting a pass from Iafeta Paleaaesina to go through, the visitors still refused to be beaten, burly prop Leafa reducing the arrears further with Tom Westerman's second goal making it 26-16 with 10 minutes left.

It wasn't until Richards slotted over a late penalty following McGoldrick's sin-binning that the Warriors felt assured they would come out with the two points to follow on from their opening weekend win at Harlequins.