Castleford Tigers fell to a narrow 10-8 defeat to Challenge Cup winners Wigan Warriors last night in a game that Craig Lingard will likely look at as having got away from his side, and one that plenty has left plenty of Cas fans up in arms over refereeing decisions.
After Wigan landed victory at Wembley last week, there was always expected to be some form of ‘hangover’, something that Sam Burgess referenced as his side lost to Salford Red Devils. However, despite any Wembley fallout, Wigan Warriors did enough to beat Castleford Tigers at The Jungle.
The score was opened by Liam Marshall inside the first ten minutes but Cas showed grit and determination to stick around and that was rewarded when Tex Hoy scored to celebrate his new contract and level the scores just after the half-hour mark.
Level at half-time, Castleford Tigers would go in front via a Rowan Milnes penalty before then adding to it again to open up an 8-4 lead just before the hour, however, things had started to unravel for the home side with Cain Robb shown a controversial sin bin just minutes earlier.
Wigan quickly used that man advantage with Liam Marshall scoring again before a Harry Smith penalty notched the Challenge Cup champions in front 10-8, a lead that they’d hold onto for the remainder of the game to go top of Super League.
Despite the scoreline being far closer than many expected, plenty of Castleford Tigers fans have been left raging at the result with claims of robbery on account of refereeing decisions.
The decision by Ben Thaler and video referee Chris Kendall to send Cain Robb to the sin bin on the 53rd minute was by far the issue that most Castleford Tigers fans took issue with, Craig Lingard’s team punished during that ten-minute period with Liam Marshall scoring to level the scores.
Sent to the sin bin for a high shot, even the Castleford Tigers official X account queried the call as they put the words ‘High Shot’ in inverted commas, a subtle hint that it was perhaps a soft call. The club’s fans weren’t as subtle though as accusations of robbery and corruption quickly were levelled at the RFL and the match officials.