Image source, SWPix.comImage caption, Kelepi Tanginoa scored his first career hat-trick as Warrington thrashed Castleford
ByStuart BrennanBBC Sport England- Published21 March 2026, 16:59 GMT
- 29 Comments
Betfred Super League
Warrington (32) 72
Tries: Ashton 3, Currie 2, Tanginoa 4, Hopoate, Stone, Harrison Goals: Irwin 12
Castleford (6) 6
Try: Valemei Goal: Weaver
Kelepi Tanginoa scored four tries as rampant Warrington Wolves thrashed Castleford Tigers to keep their 100% Super League record intact.
The big Australian forward had previously not scored a hat-trick in his senior career, and his quadruple came after Matty Ashton marked his return from a long-term injury lay-off with the first two tries before completing his own hat-trick late in the game.
Wolves were irresistible at the Halliwell Jones Stadium as Ben Currie (two), Albert Hopoate, Sam Stone and James Harrison also went over and 18-year-old half-back Ewan Irwin, preferred to veteran Marc Sneyd, kicked 12 out of 14 attempts.
The win takes Warrington second in the table behind leaders Wigan Warriors, who have played a game more and are the only other side to have won every game they have played.
Much has been made of the competitive nature of Super League this season, but this was an old-fashioned, one-sided thrashing from start to finish, as Wolves completed their first 36 sets and threw in some moments of real flair.
Cas, who lost Jack Ashworth and Joe Stimson for head injury assessments in the first few minutes - with Stimson staying off for the rest of the game, could not cope with Wire's ruck speed and pace out wide.
Ashton, out for 10 months after damaging anterior cruciate ligaments, added to Irwin's two penalties with two tries inside 15 minutes, leaving Cas wing Mikaele Ravalawa standing for the second.
That left side of the Wire attack was running riot and when the Tigers over-compensated it left Currie with space to go over underneath the posts before Semi Valemei showed a good leap and some strength to score the visitors' only try.
Normal service was quickly resumed as Tanginoa collected a George Williams grubber for his first try and then bounced Tom Weaver to clear a path to the try-line for his second.
Tanginoa, who won three trophies with Hull KR last season, completed his hat-trick three minutes after half-time before Hopoate sprinted 60 metres for another.
Currie raced clear to pile on the misery for Cas, and Tanginoa made it four tries for himself, arriving like a thunderbolt onto Williams' pass after a sublime offload from Jordan Crowther.
The sin-binning of Toby King made no difference to Wolves as Josh Thewlis' break set up Stone for another try while they were down to 12 men.
And, after King returned, Harrison grabbed his first try of the season and Ashton completed his own triumphant return with his third after showing good dribbling skills.
With Irwin, who kept his place after kicking 13 goals last week against Goole Vikings in the Challenge Cup, claiming 24 points of his own, it meant Warrington had recorded the biggest win over Castleford in their history.
'A very polished performance' - reaction
Warrington coach Sam Burgess told BBC Sport:
"It was very clean. Firstly, I liked our physicality early in the game. We were physical when we needed to be and kept hold of the ball - I don't think we made an error until late in the game so it made it very hard for Castleford.
"The ball bounced our way, we had a few calls so it just fell in our lap. You have those days so we'll take them but it was a very polished performance and I'm happy with it.
"At half-time we challenged them as we thought they might be complacent and take our foot off the gas but we were very consistent with who we want to be. Today was a good step forward for us as a group.
"Kelepi was nice for us and George [Williams] prefers playing on the left and Ewan [Irwin] slots on the right so the balance of the team was nice, and the control."
Castleford coach Ryan Carr told BBC Sport:
"It was horrible, not good enough. They played really well, we played really poorly, and that sums it up.
"There are no excuses for it. It hurts you, losing middles to head knocks, but at the end of the day we didn't make the decision to go out, put our bodies on the line and go after it.
"We're not going to skim over it. We're going to have a good look at ourselves. I feel like we have been competing in the last few games but it's a disappointing day for us.
"It's embarrassing and not good enough. I feel sorry for our members and our fans and we have to make sure that we fix it.
"The tries they scored were things we had talked about all week, that we'd worked hard on, specific drills to combat what they're good at, because they're a good footy team.
"But when they're making a line-break straight through your middle third that's nothing to do with personnel, that's just whoever is in that jersey needs to make that tackle."
Warrington: Josh Thewlis; J. Smith, King, Hopoate, Ashton; Williams, Irwin; Yates, Walker, Byrne, Stone, Tanginoa, Currie.
Interchanges: Harrison, Crowther, Philbin, Webster.
Sin-bin: King (60)
Castleford: Cini; Ravalawa, McIntosh, Valemei, Qareqare; Asi, Weaver; Greacen, Lawler, Ashworth, Lane, Hirst, Stimson.
Interchanges: Doolan, Hall, Atoni, Beckett.
Referee: Liam Rush.
