Lupton went over in the first half for Castleford's opening try

Wigan: (8) 28
Tries: Richards, Colbon, Leuluai 2
Goals: Richards 6

Castleford: (6) 16
Tries: Lupton, Haberecht, Leafa
Goals: Westerman 2

Wigan were given a scare before beating a stubborn Castleford outfit.

The Warriors were below par and despite taking the lead through a Pat Richards penalty, they fell behind when Peter Lupton went over for a try.

A Richards try and goal gave Wigan a narrow interval lead before Liam Colbon and Thomas Leuluai (2) extended the advantage just after the restart.

Tom Haberecht and Mark Leafa kept Castleford in contention but the Warriors proved too strong.

The Tigers surprised Wigan with the game's opening try when centre Ryan McGoldrick sliced through the Warriors defence and put Lupton under the posts, with Joe Westerman goaling.

Luke Dorn did well to stop Richard Mathers in full flow while Trent Barrett went close to the line eight minutes before half-time when he broke down the middle but elected to dummy with Leuluai on his inside.

Gareth Hock, back from suspension, and George Carmont pushed hard and the visitors were hanging on until Richards managed to cross right on half-time, with his conversion making it 8-6.

The Warriors then scored two tries in the first five minutes of the second half to control matters.

Colbon notched the first after the defence was unable to deal with another towering kick from Barrett, before Barrett put Leuluai over under the posts shortly after.

Richards converted the second try to open up a 12-point advantage, and added a 55th-minute penalty before Haberecht cut the gap on the hour mark.

But Leuluai added his second after a short ball from Iafeta Paleaaesina to grab his second try, with Richards adding his fifth goal.

Prop Mark Leafa's try, converted by Westerman, reduced the Tigers arrears before a late Richards penalty and the sin-binning of McGoldrick.

"The try before half-time didn't help us, and neither did the penalty count. I'm really proud of the lads but with stats like those we were torn up.

"There were two teams out there and our guys aren't any more ill disciplined than the other team. We just want consistency.

"We're killing ourselves as well because we're not completing our sets. But Wigan are too good a team to give them that many penalties. All we want is a fair cop."

"I thought we could have had a few more penalties.

"You can look at these things and make a case for both sides, but at the start of the year you've got to accept what goes on and we did.

"We played some good stuff at times. We knew they would be a tough team to play against, and we had the utmost respect for them. But we matched them like for like and I'm really pleased with where we are at."

Wigan: Mathers, Colbon, Goulding, Carmont, Richards, Barrett, Leuluai, Coley, Higham, Paleaaesina, Hansen, Bailey, O'Loughlin.
Replacements: Hock, Prescott, McIlorum, O'Carroll.

Castleford: Dorn, Owen, Shenton, McGoldrick, Wainwright, Thackeray, Sherwin, Leafa, Henderson, Korkidas, Guttenbeil, Lupton, Westerman.
Replacements: Higgins, Huby, Haberecht, Fletcher.

Referee: I Smith (Oldham)