Daryl Powell wants Castleford Tigers to get out the blocks quicker

Castleford picked up their first win in three matches when they defeated Wigan Warriors 38-28 at the Jungle, having trailed 24-8 at half-time.

The precious victory, which kept Tigers in third place in the Super League table, came a week after they had hit back from 20-4 down at Leeds Rhinos only to lose in Golden Point extra-time.

Powell described the Wigan match as a “massive win”, but conceded: “Perhaps we need to see how we can get a response from the warm-up to see how we can get ourselves going in the first half, similar to what we are doing in the second.”

Said the coach: “I thought we were pretty good in the first half in lots of areas, but obviously our right edge got exposed a fair bit and it looked like the game was really going away from us.

“We showed a lot of character and resilience and toughness to get back in it and it was fitting that Tuoyo [Egodo] – who had had a pretty rough first half – scored the winning try.”

Egodo was recalled at centre in place of Greg Minikin as Powell aimed to shore up an obvious weakness on their right. It did not work early on when Wigan’s left-side scored four tries inside the opening 22 minutes and Powell said fixing up that area was his priority during the interval.

“We were pretty positive at half-time, but clearly we had to do something about our right-edge,” he added.

“I thought they were much better in the second half. That was a positive message, given pretty sternly. I just believed if we could fix that up then we could win the game and obviously we did.

“I was really pleased with the response. Sometimes you go in at half-time when you are losing pretty heavily and players look like they are gone, but there was still plenty of spark in their eyes.

“Last week we were in a similar position and nearly won it and this time we did, but you don’t want to be in that position too often.”

The victory was marred by another injury. Castleford were already without a host of key players and forward Nathan Massey is now facing a lay-off after damaging his collarbone.