Castleford Tigers 16 Wakefield Trinity 4: classy Paul McShane makes the derby difference - match report

In front of a crowd of 8,075, Trinity avoided a fifth nilling in eight games this term - after getting half way there - but were the poorer of two struggling sides in a low-quality encounter at the Jungle on Thursday evening.

They did show some fight in the second-half and put Castleford under pressure at times, but Tigers defended well and Wakefield didn’t have enough quality to pull the game from the fire after they had gone two scores behind.

McShane, once of Trinity, scored the opening try after three minutes, set up the next half an hour later and converted both to give Tigers a 12-0 interval lead.

In between, not a lot happened, other than Trinity loan signing Nathan Mason being held up over Tigers’ line, as both teams made a string of errors.

Jack Broadbent created the first score with a clean break and though he was halted just short, McShane threw a dummy and nipped over from acting-half.

Seven minutes before the interval, Trinity full-back Will Dagger’s low kick was gathered by McShane near Castleford’s line; he dashed away and supplied Greg Eden who shrugged off Lee Kershaw to complete a length of the field move.

Something unexpected happened eight minutes into the second half: Trinity scored. It hadn’t seemed particularly likely in the opening 40 minutes, but Bureta Faraimo and Jacob Miller dropped kicks in front of their own posts, a penalty intensified the pressure and Samisoni Langi finished well at the corner after Mason Lino - who couldn’t convert - and Dagger moved the ball left.

Tigers’ Joe Westerman was sin-binned just before the hour, for tripping Jay Pitts, but the hosts scored the vital next try while a man down.

McShane was again involved, getting the ball back off Lino after kicking straight at him near Trinity’s line; Castleford then moved the ball to their left and Eden went over for an unconverted try from Niall Evalds’ pass.

Castleford Tigers: Evalds, Faraimo, Fonua, Turner, Eden, Broadbent, Miller, Massey, McShane, Matagi, Griffin, Mellor, Westerman. Subs Lawler, Edwards, Mustapha, Johnson.

Wakefield Trinity: Dagger, Kershaw, Lyne, Langi, Senior, Smith, Lino, Mason,m Hood, Whitbread, Ashurst, Hewitt, Pitts. Subs Crowther, Kay, Antoni, Proctor.

Referee: Marcus Griffiths (Widnes).

Attendance: 8,075