WARRINGTON Wolves hold a first-half lead at the Mend-A-Hose Jungle in the play-offs elimination clash with Castleford Tigers.

Tries from Ryan Atkins and Joel Monaghan sandwiched a Jamie Ellis effort as Wolves entered the break with a six-point lead.

With four minutes on the clock, Wolves’ first foray into Castleford territory seemed to have ended when Luke Dorn caught Gareth O’Brien’s high ball and Daryl Clark was able to drive his side forward from the play-the-ball.

But on the sixth tackle, Ellis failed to clear the onrushing Ben Harrison and the ball rebounded kindly into the path of Atkins, who had the legs to go the distance and give Wolves a much better start than against Widnes five days ago. Stefan Ratchford added the extras.

Tony Smith’s delight at an early try quickly turned to concern, however, as top try-scorer Joel Monaghan went down after a collision with teammate Chris Bridge.

The hosts looked to have started in the same fashion that saw them thumped at St Helens in the previous round, but a big hit on Ratchford, that caused the full back to knock on, seemed to rejuvenate the crowd at the Mend-A-Hose Jungle.

The Tigers eventually found space for Ellis to slide a grubber behind Wolves’ defence, but unlike for two Paddy Flynn tries last week the loose ball was just about dealt with.

At the other end, Ellis failed to deal with another O’Brien bomb on 17 minutes and Cas were forced to scramble back to stop Rhys Evans finding a gap.

Despite an early try, Wolves’ attack looked laboured minus a couple of jinking runs from Ratchford, joining the line from full back, as Paul Wood’s first contribution resulted in knocking on Chris Hill’s short-range pass.

Wood’s second touch was another fumble, relieving any pressure Wolves had built and giving Castleford the put in.

The hosts took full advantage, Ellis chasing his high kick and gathering from James Clare’s knock down to dart over the line. Marc Sneyd pulled the conversion wide with 15 minutes of the half remaining.

But within two minutes Wolves had re-established their lead. Chris Hill was held up short in front of the posts and Michael Monaghan was quick to the play-the-ball.

The joint-skipper passed on to O’Brien and once the ball travelled through hands to Bridge there was little doubt the centre would tee up Monaghan outside him. The Australian dived over for his 36th try of the season.

Ratchford was unable to add the extras from wide out.

Cas poured forward moments before the break, but when Roy Asotasi intercepted the hosts lost their momentum.