Castleford Tigers took on Wakefield Trinity at the Jungle last night, live on Sky Sports.
It was an incredible first-half from the visitors as an early try from Liam Hood set the tone for the rest of the 40 minutes.
Lewis Murphy scored a controversial try when he rose highest to a Jacob Miller kick, before Matty Ashurst hit the hammer blow as the half-time whistle blew.
It got even worse for Castleford after the break with some shambolic Tigers defence allowing Wakefield to go into a 30-0 lead.
Danny Richardson did manage a consolation score, but the Castleford fans were absolutely shellshocked at the scene that befell them at a packed Jungle as Mason Lino added another two points for a penalty to make it 32-6.
Castleford head coach Lee Radford slammed his side’s performance as they were second best throughout.
“I think we got out-derbied in every sense of the word against a team showing emotion,” Radford said on Sky Sports after the game.
“We were aware that would be coming and had to try and get our ambition as high as that and we fell short of that.
“I was disappointed with our start and the middles set the precedent of the shambles of the second-half.”
Radford also explained the decision to take off Joe Westerman in the first-half and made a fleeting comment about Hull FC’s Jake Connor who was taken off in similar fashion by head coach Brett Hodgson in the loss to Castleford last week.
“That was a decision I felt I needed to make and I’m comfortable with that decision.”
“He was like Jake Connor on the bench wasn’t he?”
The Castleford head coach wants a massive improvement against St Helens next week.
“It was a massively wasted opportunity. I spoke about the opportunity to get in the top four but we weren’t at it tonight. Next week is a real challenge for us.
“I want to fix our attitude towards defence which is always an indicator if we are on or not.”
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