Friday 26 September 2014 11:58, UK
Warrington coach Tony Smith paid tribute to his side’s defensive efforts after the Wolves clinched a 30-14 victory over Castleford in the Super League playoffs.
The Wolves are now one match away from a third straight Grand Final after two tries from Joel Monaghan and one apiece from Ryan Atkins, Gareth O’Brien and Rhys Evans led them past the Challenge Cup runners-up.
Jamie Ellis scored after James Clare had knocked down a kick in the first half but Smith was otherwise delighted with the way his side stayed switched on when defending.
“I thought defensively we were outstanding. I thought our D was really strong, with good line speed and cover for each other,” Smith told Sky Sports.
“In the first half we conceded that try from a kick but aside from that I thought we were really good. We can improve with the ball, that’s for sure, but (Castleford) are a good team and they’ve had a tremendous year.
“They deserve all the accolades they’re receiving at the moment and that they’ve received so far this year.
“It’s a tough thing to back up after the Challenge Cup, regardless of whether you win it or you don’t. It’s hard to play week-in, week-out when some other teams have had a break.
“We’ve had a break and we are feeling pretty good at the moment even though we’ve still got a couple of people to come back from injury.”
Castleford were the surprise contenders in the race for the League Leaders’ Shield this year, eventually finishing the regular season in fourth place.
But they ran out of steam in the playoffs, fading away on Thursday night after fighting back to 12-10 at the start of the second half at the Mend-A-Hose Jungle.
Tigers coach Daryl Powell said: “Obviously we are really disappointed. We thought at home tonight we could have come up with a performance which would have got us the result.
“When we got back to 12-10 we looked like we could do something but we just couldn’t quite pull our game together to get what we wanted. Credit to Warrington, they got the points when they needed to.
“We are really disappointed we finished the season in this way but the boys, the club, the coaching staff and everybody involved have all been awesome.
“We’ve had a fair old journey and should learn a lot from this season. We’ll look to step up this year, it’s going to be massive for us.”
