Monday 29 September 2014 12:05, UK
Castleford’s playoff adventure was finally ended on Thursday as they lost 30-14 to Warrington at the Mend-A-Hose Jungle to call an end to their memorable season.
The Tigers surprised many with a strong Super League campaign and a run to the Challenge Cup final, but they markedly ran out of steam towards the end of the season, especially last time out when they were thrashed 41-0 by St Helens.
Castleford produced a much-improved display this time around with glimpses of the form that saw them secure their highest ever finish of fourth and a home playoff tie – but it was the Wolves, chasing a third straight Grand Final, who came out on top.
Two tries from Joel Monaghan and one each from Ryan Atkins, Gareth O’Brien and Rhys Evans along with five kicks from Stefan Ratchford were enough to get Warrington, who finished fifth in the table, through to the semi-finals where they will face either Wigan or St Helens.
Cas only trailed by two points when Luke Dorn scored their second try on 52 minutes when they made a big effort just after the interval to get back into it, but that effort, on top of a long, arduous season, took its toll as they faded in the closing stages to end their superb season empty handed.
Defeat meant the end of the Castleford careers of Marc Sneyd, Jamie Ellis, Weller Hauraki, Craig Huby and Daryl Clark, who is joining Warrington and will now be hoping they go on to reach the Grand Final to give him a chance of playing in February's World Club Series.
Castleford made it tough for themselves after gifting their visitors a try inside four minutes – as Warrington forward Ben Harrison charged down Ellis' attempted clearance kick and centre Atkins collected the ricochet to sprint over from 40 metres out.
The home side were rewarded for their persistence on 23 minutes when Clare was the first to Ellis' high kick and managed to palm the ball back into his grateful arms for the former Leigh scrum-half to score on his final home appearance.
Sneyd missed his conversion attempt and another fumble on halfway gave Warrington the position from which they scored their second try, with Monaghan taking Chris Bridge's neat pass to finish off a sparkling handling move.
When Sneyd was pulled up for interference in the tackle on 52 minutes, Warrington opted to kick for goal and Ratchford 's 40-metre effort put them two scores in front.
Had prop Roy Asotasi managed to reach the line three minutes later the contest would have been over but he lost the ball and Castleford immediately went upfield to score their second try.
Full-back Dorn sliced through a rare hole in the visitors' defence to touch down and Sneyd kicked his first goal of the match.
The Wolves were clearly rocking at that stage but Ratchford came up with a magical pass out of the tackle to get Richie Myler into space and his half-back partner Gareth O'Brien was in support to touch down.
And four minutes later Warrington made the game safe when left winger Evans produced a superb pick-up to collect Ratchford's pass and score his side's fourth try.
Monaghan then went in for his second but Warrington finished the game with 12 men after Evans was sin-binned for a professional foul and Castleford made the extra man count by working skipper Michael Shenton over for a consolation try.
