Wigan work over Cas

Correspondent

Wigan Warriors have eased into the Challenge Cup semi-finals after beating Castleford Tigers 26-12 at home.

The Warriors are in the semi-finals for the first time since 2013, when they last won the competition.

Wigan took the lead after just six minutes through Dan Sarginson, as he supported Ryan Sutton’s break along with Sam Tomkins and the ex-New Zealand Warriors fullback found Sarginson with the ball to score.

Matty Smith scored the conversion to put the Warriors 6-0 up.

Tomkins then got a try to go with his assist just eight minutes later.

He showed great feet and strength to evade the tackle of Grant Millington, leaving a clear path for him to score.

Smith added the extra two points for a 12-0 advantage.

Josh Charnley then got in on the act just before the half hour mark as he barged through two alseep Castleford defenders from dummy half to ground the ball.

Smith carried on his 100% record from conversions and gave his side an 18-0 lead.

Charnley got a second just before half time after a flowing move was finished with an acrobatic effort from the rugby union-bound winger.

Castleford finally got on the scoreboard after the hour mark when Luke Gale brilliantly supported Junior Moors’ break to give the many Tigers fans something to cheer about.

He converted his own try to reduce the deficit to 16.

Dom Manfredi then scored a highly controversial try as he chased a ball that was heading out of play.

Video referee Robert Hicks felt as though there was insufficient evidence to overturn the on field decision of try – even though Manfredi appeared to miss the ball.

The final word went to the Tigers after Joel Monoghan brilliantly offloaded on the touchline inside to Ben Crooks, who added another consolation touchdown.

Gale added the conversion to add a little more credibility to the 26-12 scoreline.