WIRE’S incredible tough run of fixtures at the end of the season was made a little easier because of Castleford's trip to Wembley the following week resulting in six of their best players being rested.

The opening 20 minutes were remarkably similar to the semi final just the week before, Wire having to defend several sets of six close to their line, once again they did so admirably and prevented their opponents from scoring any tries in this period.

The one big difference from last week was that Wire managed to break away and score two tries from the limited possession that they had in that time.

First Atkins was able to score by chasing a teasing and awkwardly bouncing kick from O'Brien, then the young half back scored himself when he supported on Michael Monaghan's inside after the veteran hooker made one of his vintage breaks.

Bridge barged his way over to create and 18-point lead, before we had some more semi-final deja vu when a suspiciously forward looking long pass resulted in a try for Castleford in the left hand corner.

The Tigers scored first in the second half to reduce the lead to eight points, but it never looked like getting any closer and Wire gradually ran away with the game.

Rhys Evans scored twice, both excellent finishes in the corner, England crashed onto a short ball near the line to burst through some tackles and score near the posts, Ratchford benefitted from a good handling move wide to the right to go over in the corner untouched and then Joel Monaghan popped up in the middle to score his 24th Super League try of the season.

The intensity wasn't as you would expect for a game between two teams in the top five this close to the end of the season, Wire's defensive line speed wasn't at it's best as they seem to take a 'bend but don't break' approach.

They did defend their line exceptionally on several occasions, including when Rhys Evans produced one of the tackles of the season to save what seemed to be a certain try from a long Castleford break.

Castleford fans rightly enjoyed themselves, looking forward to next week and it was good to see their mascot had fully recovered from his traumatic experience at the weekend. Wire now have eyes on another prize.