Matt Peet delivers verdict on Wigan Warriors defeat to Castleford Tigers with root cause aired
Wigan Warriors coach Matt Peet made no excuses following his side’s shock home defeat to Castleford Tigers, admitting the ‘start of the second half killed us’.
The Warriors were 14-6 ahead at half-time on Sunday afternoon, but it was Castleford who took the two points back over the Pennines, having scored three unanswered tries in the second half to complete an impressive comeback and finish 24-14 victors.
Wigan have now lost their last three Super League games, with their only win in the last four coming in a hard-fought 26-22 victory at Wakefield Trinity in the Challenge Cup quarter-finals last weekend.
Peet’s side faced adversity in the build-up to the Castleford game, losing halfback Harry Smith and forward Sam Walters to three-match bans, while prop Ethan Havard was a late withdrawal through a calf injury.
But speaking in his post-match press conference, Peet refused to make any excuses and insisted his side needs to be better.
"I don’t think you can use it as an excuse,” said Peet. “We just need to be at a better level than that, some things that you can almost expect, and some things you have to hold as a standard.
"I’m disappointed, particularly with the second half. I thought we got ourselves in decent shape, and then at the start of the second half, we didn’t get a foothold in the game. I thought penalties and six-agains mainly, but we made too many errors, so Castleford were worthy winners.
"I think we didn’t get the start right defensively, but I thought once we got set for set, and got some flow in the game, I thought we looked like we were finding a bit of rhythm in the game with a new spine in and a few new faces, so I thought we got ourselves in decent shape, but the start of that second half killed us.
"We had a quick chat then (in the changing rooms). We spoke about the start of the second half and not getting that right, and just how there are certain things that are recurring that we need to address – basically, not stopping the momentum of the game, wrestling it back and making it a set-for-set game."
Wigan were in a relatively healthy 14-6 lead at the half-time interval, but penalties and six-agains saw Castleford gain momentum in the second half, which Wigan struggled to wrestle back.
“I think across the board in Super League at the moment, momentum swings are big and maximising them when you’ve got them,” Peet continued,
"Ideally, we want a set-for-set game, but if we give penalties away and make errors, it’s not set for set, and it’s our fault, so it’s really simple.
“I think we made a high amount of errors and were giving a relatively high amount of penalties and six-agains in blocks, particularly at the start of the second half – two sets with the ball in 20 minutes and then when we did get it, Castleford were energetic and enthusiastic because we’d not taken anything out of them, but fair play to them.”
Wigan now have a short turnaround, with a trip to Warrington Wolves up next on Friday night, as the Warriors look to put things right in training this week.
"You’re limited (with a short turnaround), but we’re all in the same boat, and that’s the exciting thing about Super League, fortunately, you don’t have much time to dwell on it,” Peet continued.
"We’ve got to address today, and there’ll be some lessons in there, but you’ve got to learn quickly.”