WOLVES hit Castleford Tigers with a fast-and-furious feast to run out convincing winners in the end.

Trailing 18-16 at half time, Tony Smith called on his troops to increase the aggression in defence and for his elusive fast men to rip up the Cas defence down the middle.

With such an onslaught the Wolves boss expected Tigers to wilt on an all-too-rare warm summer's day and he was proved right as Brad Dwyer, Daryl Clark, Stefan Ratchford, Matty Russell and Chris Sandow took it in turns to cut Cas to ribbons.

Tigers coach Daryl Powell admitted afterwards that Wolves are the competition's best at challenging a team around the ruck area, and it is one thing knowing that but another trying to stop it.

In the space of 23 minutes, four converted tries and a penalty goal moved The Wire to a 42-18 lead on the back of intrusive raids through Castleford's heart.

Just as impressive was that 20 of those points came while senior leader Kurt Gidley was off the field with a head injury.

Perhaps the second period would have panned out differently had full back Ratchford not produced an extraordinary effort early on.

He got across the field to prevent a Luke Gale try next to his right-hand corner post and on the next tackle he popped up on the far left to diffuse a kick aimed at space where Castleford thought there would be nobody at home.

Cas, who were gifted a 100-metre hat-trick try for Super League's top try scorer Denny Solomona from a poor Sandow kick at the end of the first half, would have been buoyed by a score at that stage.

But shortly afterwards sneaky Dwyer twisted out of three defenders to touch down from a tap penalty at close quarters.

Then Sandow broke through and turned Luke Dorn inside out before handing on to Ben Currie to finish off.

Moments later two ex-Cas boys combined. Clark got in the clear, Joe Westerman continued the move and Toby King completed the mission.

Clark added a solo score of his own straight from dummy half too.

It was all over by the time Solomona bagged his fourth try for Cas, who initially went behind in the first period to two thrilling long-range efforts from Rhys Evans and a smart score from Ratchford off a Ben Westwood pass.

Although not in the spotlight for his attack quite as much as in the previous week's win against Salford, Westerman was a tireless worker in defence.

The Tigers camp felt a Frankie Mariano try in the second period, when it was 22-18, was harshly ruled out by referee Chris Kendall for Westerman being obstructed.

Video replays show they have a case, but it only balances out Solomona's second score in the first period when Evans was clearly taken out by a dummy runner.

When Wolves meet Cas for a fourth time this season in the Super 8s, they will need to cope better on the right from the combined threat of Gale, Dorn and Solomona.

Back rower Junior Moors was a handful too but thankfully on this occasion Wolves got a grip of things in the second half to mostly snuff out the dangers in the Cas ranks.

STATS SPOT:

Ryan Atkins' 200th game for Wolves.

Stefan Ratchford's 250th career appearance.

Seventh loss in 11 home games for Cas.

Second away win in Yorkshire this year for Wolves.

MATCH FACTS:

Super League Round 22, Sunday, July 17, 2016

Castleford Tigers...26 Warrington Wolves...42

Tigers: Luke Dorn; Ryan Hampshire, Ben Crooks, Greg Minikin, Denny Solomona; Paul McShane, Luke Gale; Danny Tickle, Adam Milner, Larne Patrick, Oliver Holmes, Frankie Mariano, Junior Moors. Subs: Grant Millington, Rangi Chase, Matt Cook, Gadwin Springer.

Wolves: Stef Ratchford; Tom Lineham, Rhys Evans, Ryan Atkins, Matty Russell; Kurt Gidley, Chris Sandow; Chris Hill, Daryl Clark, Ashton Sims, Jack Hughes, Ben Currie, Joe Westerman. Subs: Toby King, Brad Dwyer, Ben Westwood, Ryan Bailey.

Scoring: Mariano try, 4mins, 4-0; Evans try, 8mins, 4-4; Evans try, 13mins, Gidley goal, 4-10; Solomoa try, 25mins, 8-10; Solomona try, 34mins, Gale goal, 14-10; Ratchford try, 40+mins, Gidley goal, 14-16; Solomona try, 40+mins, 18-16; Dwyer try, 46mins, Sandow goal, 18-22; Sandow penalty, 57mins, 18-24; Currie try, 59mins, Sandow goal, 18-30; King try, 61mins, Sandow goal, 18-36; Clark try, 69mins, Gidley goal, 18-42; Solomona try, 75mins, 22-42; Crooks try, 80mins, 26-42.

Penalties: Tigers 5 Wolves 5

Referee: Chris Kendall

Attendance: 8,060

Top man: Stefan Ratchford