WARRINGTON Wolves have picked up where they left off last week, as they go into the break 28-points to the good against Castleford Tigers at the Halliwell Jones Stadium.

A dominating first half performance from Tony Smith’s men led to Lee Briers grabbing a brace, with Gareth O’Brien, Matt King and Brett Hodgson adding further tries to put Warrington Wolves well in control.

It is a fitting performance on a night when the club announced some good news, a new six-year deal for Halliwell Jones to continue as the stadium sponsor until 2017.

The match began at a lightening pace and with real attitude shown by both teams. There were massive hits dealt out by both sides, with Warrington coming out on top in the opening exchanges after a knock on by the Tigers. This led to the first try of the game, as Gareth O’Brien picked up the ball at first receiver and dummied over from close range for a dream start to a Super League debut. Brett Hodgson missed the goal.

But he made up for this rare mistake from the tee just minutes later, as Lee Briers produced an almost carbon copy of O’Brien’s opening try to put Wolves 10-points to the good. The stand off got the ball from Michael Monaghan at dummy half and spotted a gap in the defence to twist over the line. Again, though, it followed a Castleford handling error, with Tigers inviting pressure on themselves after failing to look after the ball.

So it proved again on 16 minutes, with Wolves gaining possession after a dropped ball and punishing the visitors with yet another try. Michael Monaghan whipped the ball out from dummy half and the ball is worked down the line until Gareth O’Brien and Brett Hodgson combine to send Matt King over in the corner. Brett Hodgson added the extras from the touchline to open up a 16-point lead for the hosts.

Tigers were struggling to threaten Wolves’ line, with Richie Mathers coming closest with a nice break that was cut short after the former Wolves full back fumbled the ball and gifted possession back to the home side. In typical fashion, Wolves punished Castleford’s generosity by scoring their fourth try of the night. Still flying from his debut Super League try in the first five minutes, O’Brien hoisted a poor high kick towards the left corner, which somehow found its way back to the young scrum half 15 metres out. But he made up for his mistake immediately, poking a clever grubber through for the on-rushing Brett Hodgson to dribble over the line between two defenders and touch down. Hodgson converted his own try and Wolves were leading 22-0 after 26 minutes.

The pressure from the home side was relentless, keeping the Tigers pinned in and forcing goal line drop-out after Lee Briers’ high kick was caught by Richie Mathers and he was forced back over the line.

Under the pressure of such an onslaught, the visitors were unable to hold out until half time. Briers landed the final blow of the half when he crossed for his second try of the evening. Receiving the ball from Mickey Higham at dummy half, his delicate grubber kick bounced back off the post and he strolls over uncontested. Hodgson added the conversion to take Wolves into half time with a 28-0 lead.

Wolves: Brett Hodgson; Joel Monaghan, Chris Bridge, Ryan Atkins, Matt King; Lee Briers, Gareth O'Brien; Adrian Morley, Michael Monaghan, Garreth Carvell, Louis Anderson, Ben Westwood, Simon Grix. Subs: Mickey Higham, Paul Wood, Mike Cooper, David Solomona.

Tigers: Richie Mathers; Kirk Dixon, Ryan McGoldrick, Joe Arundel, Richard Owen; Rangi Chase, Danny Orr; Nathan Massey, Ryan Hudson, Nick Fozzard, Brett Ferres, Stuart Jones, Martin Aspinwall. Subs: Jake Emmitt, Adam Milner, Oli Holmes, Dean Widders.