Wakefield Trinity suffer heavy derby loss to Castleford Tigers

Wakefield, who gave a debut to youngster Brad Moules, opened up a 20-16 lead early in the second half, with former Castleford centre Joe Arundel scoring two of their tries.

However, Castleford, who had Rangi Chase and top try-scorer Denny Solomona among a host of absentees, roared back with 30 points in the last 23 minutes, with new loan signing Andre Savelio getting among the tries.

There was little hint of the eventual scoreline after Wakefield made a flying start with two tries in the first 12 minutes.

Jacob Miller collected his half-back partner Liam Finn’s high kick to score the first and then combined with him to get Arundel over for his first.

Finn kicked one goal to put his side into a 10-0 lead but slow-starting Castleford were sparked into action by a thrilling opportunist try from winger Greg Minikin, who swooped on a careless pass from his opposite number Reece Lyne and went 90 metres unchallenged to score.

Luke Gale missed the difficult conversion but was on target on 24 minutes to level the scores after makeshift centre Oliver Holmes won the race to the scrum-half’s kick to the line.

Wakefield always looked the more dangerous side and they regained the lead four minutes later when Arundel took Finn’s pass to go through a gap for his second try and Finn’s goal made it 16-10.

The visitors levelled the scores for a second time five minutes into the second half when Savelio took McShane’s pass to romp through the Trinity defence but they soon fell behind once more when Lyne leapt above Minikin to collect Finn’s kick and touch down at the corner.

That was as good as it got for the home side, however, as they capitulated in the final quarter.

A charging run from Savelio created the position for Gale to touch down and Gale’s third goal put the Tigers in front for the first time.

Loose forward Junior Moors charged over for a fifth try on 63 minutes and Minikin claimed his second after collecting Gale’s pinpoint kick to the corner.

As Wakefield wilted, Castleford cut loose in the final 19 minutes, with substitute Tom Holmes and full-back Ryan Hampshire adding to their try tally and Gale taking his goal tally to seven from eight attempts.

The win secures a sixth place finish for Tigers.