Castleford Tigers 4 Wigan Warriors 46: Grieving Castleford succumb to the brilliance of star Tomkins

The superstar celebrated his 100th Wigan game with a typically sublime hat-trick and was involved in all but one of their eight tries.

The hope must be that the dynamic full-back, with the dazzling feet and pace to match, goes on to chalk up a double ton of appearances; that would mean the expected switch to rugby union in three years’ time has not materialised and the game does not lose one of its true leading lights.

Of course, given tragic events which had occurred a week previously, the on-field action here mattered little yesterday.

Castleford held a minute’s applause beforehand for Robbie Millward, the 19-year-old son of their head coach who died of a suspected heart attack last Sunday.

However, assistant Stuart Donlan – who has been in charge at Wheldon Road with Millward on indefinite compassionate leave – refused to use the testing circumstances, or late injuries which deprived him of both Joe Arundel and Brett Ferres, as reason for his side’s defeat

“We’re disappointed and the players are a little frustrated in there,” he said, with the Tigers now not having won since their opener at Salford.

“It’s been a difficult week but we can’t use that as an excuse for not doing some of the things we spoke about like taking time off Wigan and closing their players down a bit quicker.

“We also wanted to turn the ball over on our terms, get them coming off their line, but that didn’t happen much and we had to go 100 metres near enough every set. Wigan didn’t have the same problem.”

Centre Arundel, meanwhile, visited a shoulder specialist on Saturday afternoon and was advised not to play for at least the next two weeks while Ferres ruled himself out yesterday morning meaning James Grehan debuted and Nick Youngquest returned earlier than expected from his own injury.

Despite trailing 24-4 by half-time, Castleford – who host champions Leeds Rhinos on Friday – were not without their own chances.

However, Wigan’s defence was so well-organised and resolute that the merest of openings was quickly snuffed out.

Shaun Wane wants his side to defend “like a pack of dogs” this season and it was hard not to see the similarities yesterday.

Josh Griffin managed to escape the shackles in the ninth minute when some fine precision passing gave the winger his sixth try in just four games since signing from Wakefield. But thereafter, Castleford simply ran up against cherry and white walls.

Rangi Chase tried all his tricks, Richard Owen was threatening and, in Jake Emmitt and Stuart Jones, they had willing runners.

Wigan’s defensive dominance, though, was illustrated perfectly during one set towards the end of the half. First, Pat Richards – who kicked seven from eight – scrambled to claw in Owen out on the right, then Michael McIllorum somehow dragged down Steve Snitch after Chase’s flat mis-pass looked certain to put the forward over through the middle.

Tigers went left on the last play fully expecting to finally capitalise with Wigan so stretched but again Wane’s side recovered to nullify the threat.

Soon after, growing increasingly frustrated, Chase tried an ambitious chip on halfway.

It did not come off and he could only watch on as, in the next set, his England colleague Tomkins splinted Castleford’s own defence with comparative ease, surging on a diagonal run to the corner from 30m.

Richards curled over the touchline conversion and, 24-4 down, it quickly became damage limitation.

The menacing visitors had gone ahead after just three minutes. As is so often the case when a loose ball hits the ground, Tomkins’ misdirected effort meant space opened up for Sean O’Loughlin, the Wigan captain who glues everything together and strode out with a typically strong finish,

When Youngquest then dropped a Chase pass on his own 20m line, the dashing Tomkins made him pay from the resulting scrum, standing up an embarrassed Ryan McGoldrick with too much ease to sprint in for his first.

Griffin responded but it would be Castleford’s only success all afternoon.

Another piercing Tomkins run saw him get on the outside of Chase and, although he was reined in, Brett Finch’s long pass on the last tackle saw Jack Hughes usher Richards over.

Tomkins scorched in for his second and completed his hat-trick just three minutes after the restart when he rose above the struggling Youngquest to collect Finch’s kick.

He then made a mockery of the Castleford defence, running around 360 degrees as they stood off before firing a pass out for Richards to add his second.

Josh Charnley was afforded similar space by Youngquest to score and – after Tomkins had shown his defensive skill, stopping Jones following a rare break from Chase – it was left to the England star to produce one more piece of class, his glorious flick pass sending Charnley over for his second.

Castleford: Owen; Griffin, McGoldrick, Dixon, Youngquest; Chase, Orr; Emmitt, Milner, Nash, Holmes, Mitchell, Jones. Substitutes: Clark, Snitch, Massey, Grehan.

Wigan: Tomkins; Charnley, Goulding, Hughes, Richards; Finch, Leuluai; Lauaki, McIlorum, Mossop, Hansen, Hock, O’Loughlin. Substitutes: Lima, Farrell, Tuson, Spencer.

Referee: T Alibert (Toulouse).