Castleford Tigers 22 Wigan Warriors 36: Castleford struggle to contain dangerous Roberts

When Amos Roberts arrived at Wigan from Sydney Roosters, the winger's contribution hardly had supporters hailing a new Martin Offiah

But, having switched to full-back this year, the fleet-footed Australian is proving transformed, his classy hat-trick yesterday pushing him to joint-top of Super League's try-scoring stakes with 10 and leaving Castleford mesmerised.

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Roberts's silky running also created both crucial Joel Tomkins tries just after the break – helping take the game away from Castleford who had trailed just 14-12 at the interval – and his floated pass had seen Cameron Phelps score early on.

The victory sees Wigan go top and leaves Terry Matterson still awaiting Tigers' first home success of the season yet the Australian coach was rightly not too downhearted by his injury-hit side's performance.

"We were well in the game at half-time but after one poor kick-chase we didn't have the ball for 10 minutes and couldn't recover," he said.

"I thought we had a real chance to get back into it but the Rangi Chase thing didn't help."

Castleford's most dangerous attacker was yellow-carded on the hour mark with the hosts having fallen 30-12 behind after Roberts inspired a quickfire golden spell.

He finally lost his temper after Sean O'Loughlin had interfered in the tackle for the umpteenth time.

Chase won the penalty but then unleashed a couple of combinations which barely troubled the back-tracking Wigan captain yet earned the Castleford player a yellow-card.

"They were around our heads all day," said Matterson, clearly aggrieved by Wigan's now famed tackle technique under new coach Michael Maguire.

"He (Chase) got frustrated but really didn't do anything apart from shape-up which was a bit silly.

"What do you expect though when a bloke's got his arm around his head all afternoon."

Without Chase, the Tigers should have seen the contest fall further away from them but ironically they scored in the next set, Ryan McGoldrick and Kirk Dixon linking before Michael Wainwright finished well stepping back inside off his wing.

But there was no comeback. Tempers raised again when McGoldrick clattered into Andy Coley with a high tackle, allowing Phil Bailey the position to put the irrepressible Roberts in for his deserved third.

Castleford finished strongly with on-loan Warrington forward Michael Cooper getting his first try on his home debut, benefitting from Ryan Hudson's neat grubber, but it was not the reward they wanted after a sterling first half.

After Richards and Joe Westerman exchanged early penalties, Roberts fizzed in for the game's first try, cutting a perfect angle to hit O'Loughlin's inside ball and angle over for a fine score straight off the training ground.

Richards converted – although the usually reliable winger missed four of his eight shots – and Wigan quickly struck again when Roberts's long pass was plucked out of the air by Phelps.

Phelps had started at full-back but soon limped off with a leg injury to see Roberts revert to his favoured spot. How Castleford would have wished that never happened.

However, they received a gift when they re-started, Wigan prop Stuart Fielden being penalised by fastidious referee James Child – he awarded 21 penalties – for moving off the mark as he went to play the ball.

Chase, McGoldrick and Westerman combined slickly to give Michael Shenton a chance at the corner and the England centre duly took it.

He was in again soon after when a brilliant McGoldrick pass saw him split two Wigan defenders and Westerman's conversion put them 12-10 in front.

However, Wigan, who have only lost once this season at Bradford, responded when Richards climbed above youngster Jordan Thompson – in for Shaun Ainscough, who could not play due to the terms of his loan deal arranged with Wigan – to take Tomkins's kick and they went in 14-12.

Three tries in seven minutes then did the damage early in the second period with the outstanding Roberts proving crucial in all of Wigan's scores.

First, after McGoldrick's poor kick arrowed straight to Richards, he latched onto his team-mate's marginally forward pass on halfway to streak clear down the middle.

Mitchell Sargent managed to half stop the weaving full-back but Roberts simply bounced back up and found Joel Tomkins who motored over.

Roberts then embarrassed Kirk Dixon who tried rushing up to pressurise the dynamic speedman only to get fooled by his wonderful footwork and left with his head in his hands as Castleford's chief tormentor raced in from 35 metres.

Richards finally added a conversion to ironic cheers and – straight from the restart – Roberts opened up down the middle again before supplying Joel Tomkins for his second which left Castleford too much to do.

Castleford: McGoldrick; Thompson, Shenton, Dixon, Wainwright; Westerman, Chase; Higgins, Hudson, Huby, Snitch, Jones, Clayton. Substitutes: Sargent, Cooper, Massey, Sherwin.

Wigan: Phelps; Roberts, Gleeson, Carmont, Richards; S Tomkins, Leuluai; Coley, Riddell, Fielden, Bailey, J Tomkins, O'Loughlin. Substitutes: Prescott, O'Carroll, Mossop, Tuson.

Referee: J Child (Dewsbury)

MATCH FOCUS

Hero: Amos Roberts

The Wigan winger was almost unplayable when he switched to full-back; Castleford will have been ruing the fifth-minute injury to Cameron Phelps which forced the positional re-jig and allowed the stellar Australian to use all his powers.

'Villain': James Child

It is easy to bemoan the referee but some of his decisions with regards penalties were baffling and inconsistent with Wigan certainly allowed too long messing around at the play-the-ball.

Verdict

Despite their injury problems, Castleford are always capable of testing any side at The Jungle and that proved the case in first half. Their lack of depth hurt them though and they need men back soon although most of the damage yesterday was caused by one man – Amos Roberts

Key moment

The clinical back-to-back tries from Joel Tomkins and Amos Roberts in the 47th and 49th minute saw the game fall away from Castleford.

Next game

Castleford v Crusaders, Engage Super League, Friday March 26, 8pm.

Quote of the day

We came up with some dumb errors – both in attack and defence – and it seemed to cost us six points every time. We needed to be at the top of our game but weren't quite there in the second half.

– Cas coach Terry Matterson