Castleford Tigers star suffers nasty injury

It was a tough night for Castleford Tigers last night as they faced former coach Daryl Powell’s Warrington Wolves side.

Castleford received a boost before kick-off when one of Warrington’s star signings Josh Drinkwater wasn’t named in the squad, forcing Pete Mata’utia into the halves.

Matty Russell also was named and made his second debut for the Wolves.

It didn’t matter that Drinkwater wasn’t involved as Warrington went about making Castleford look very ordinary without him, and without really getting out of second gear.

Sam Kasiano forced his way over inside 10 minutes for Warrington to take the lead and whilst Castleford did have chances it was the away side who scored second.

Matty Russell crowned his second debut with a try on the 20 minute mark after Greg Eden’s stray pass and not two minutes later Thomas Mikaele shot through a gap to make it 18-0, Ratchford converting all three early tries.

Castleford managed to stem the flow but it was Warrington who crossed over next when Matt Dufty’s lofted pass allowed Russell to add a second in the corner.

Ratchford converted to keep his record perfect and leave the visitors leading 24-0 at half time and Andy Last with a hell of a task to get his men back into the game.

Regardless of what Last said to his men it was a case of Warrington continuing to pile the pressure on and signing of the season so far, Paul Vaughan, scored 10 minutes into the second half.

Just two minutes later Warrington added anther try through George Williams and then on the hour mark Matt Dufty got in on the action as well to make it a huge 38-0.

That would be the last of the scoring on a night where Warrington stamped their authority and dominance at the top of the table.

It was another tough night for the Tigers made worse by three injury concerns that Last would confirm on BBC Radio Leeds after the game.

Paul McShane suffered a dead leg and Liam Watts had a problem with his AC joint.

But the nastiest injury was suffered by Nathan Massey who suffered a suspected fractured eye socket.

Last said: “Massey looks like he could have fractured his eye socket. He’s blown his nose and his eye has gone.”