Wigan coach delivers brutally honest assessment as shock Castleford defeat unpicked

Wigan boss Matt Peet pulled no punches in his assessment of the Warriors’ shock home defeat to Castleford Tigers, laying the blame on errors and ill-discipline.

The Cherry and Whites led 14-6 on home soil come the break on Sunday afternoon, but it was Cas who ended up taking the two competition points back down the M62.

Ryan Carr’s Tigers had won just once in Super League this term prior, but scored 18 unanswered points in the second half – with Krystian Mapapalangi the star of the show.

Wigan have now lost three Super League games on the spin, with their only win in the last four across all competitions coming last weekend in the Challenge Cup quarter-finals at Wakefield.

Wigan coach delivers brutally honest assessment as shock Castleford defeat unpicked

In the build-up to the game against Cas, the Warriors saw both Harry Smith and Sam Walters suspended for three games apiece, while Ethan Havard remained unavailable through injury.

But head coach Peet refuted any excuses post-match as he said: “I don’t think you can use it as an excuse, we need to be at a better level than that.

“There’s some things you can almost expect and some you’ve got to hold as a standard. We had a quick chat then, we spoke about the start to the second half, that’s killed us not getting that right.

“There are certain things that are reoccurring which we need to address, not stopping the momentum of the game and making it a set-for-set game.

“Across the board in Super League at the moment, momentum swings are back and you’ve got to maximise them when you’ve got them.

“Ideally, we want a set-for-set game, but if we give penalties away and make errors, that’s our fault. It’s really simple.”

Wigan have just five days to pick themselves up before making the short trip to Warrington in Round 9, with the Wolves having an identical record of five wins and three defeats in Super League so far this season.

Peet continued: “We made a high amount of errors and gave a relatively high amount of ‘six agains’ and penalties away in blocks, particularly at the start of the second half.”

“We had two sets with the ball in 20 minutes (at the start of the second half), and Castleford were energetic because we hadn’t taken anything out of them.

“You’re limited (with a short turnaround), but we’re all in the same boat, and that’s the writing thing about Super League.

“We don’t have much time to dwell on it, we’ve got to address today and there’ll be some lessons in there, but you’ve got to learn quickly.”