The Tigers led the league leaders 12-0 at the break thanks to tries from Kirk Dixon and Grant Millington in a half that Wigan really struggled to get a foothold in.
James Clare and Josh Charnley traded scores in the second half before a penalty from Dixon on the hooter rounded off a famous win for Cas.
Wigan were already without Sam Tomkins and Lee Mossop but the late withdrawals of Tom Spencer and Logan Tomkins saw head coach Shaun Wane give former Wales rugby union international Andy Powell his first experience of Super League. Powell was named on the bench while Wane also welcomed back Blake Green, Michael McIlorum and Gil Dudson after injury lay-offs.
The opening try came in the 20th minute and it came from a Lewis Tierney mistake. The young full-back did extremely well to collect Rangi Chase’s high kick but was clattered with a ferocious hit and dropped the ball, allowing Dixon to touch down with Chase converting.
Wigan attempted to hit back straight away with back-to-back sets and the home crowd thought they had levelled matters with Pat Richards seemingly having a walkover following Sam Powell’s kick over, but the Australian winger dropped the ball with nobody in sight.
Powell was introduced to the action on 28 minutes and he was twice involved in Wigan’s next attack as Blake Green thought he had set up their first try but Charnley had been adjudged to have knocked on before Darrell Goulding touched down.
Chase was running the game for the visitors and it was only a last-gasp tackle from Liam Farrell that stopped him from extending their lead. Anthony Gelling was then penalised for lying on in the tackle and Dixon opted to take the two and slot home the penalty for an 8-0 lead.
The Tigers extended their lead even further after the restart as Richard Owen burst down the right before sending Jordan Tansey clear and he in turn offloaded to Millington to touch down despite the attentions of Tierney. Wigan’s ill discipline was once again their downfall as Chase took full advantage of another penalty, sending out a sublime ball to Dixon who then sent Clare in at the corner to make the score 16-0.
It took Wigan 58 minutes before they managed to cross the whitewash through Charnley. Green went close with a neat step and go and after he was held down they took a quick tap penalty and Goulding fired out a ball for the winger to touch down in the corner. With the clock running down Castleford received another penalty and Dixon converted to give the Tigers a stunning win.
Winger Jermaine McGillvary and England forward Brett Ferres both scored hat-tricks as Huddersfield beat Catalan Dragons 60-16 to pile the pressure on Super League leaders Wigan.
The Giants were in rampant form at the John Smith’s Stadium as they completed the double over the French side and took full advantage of Wigan’s shock home defeat by Castleford to move to within a point of the table-toppers.
Their 10-try romp was masterminded by skipper Danny Brough, who toyed with a woeful Dragons defence and kicked 10 goals from 11 attempts. Brough did most of the damage in the opening quarter, getting the outstanding Ferres over for two tries and winger Aaron Murphy for one and the visitors never really recovered.
Ferres, beginning to look every inch an international forward, took Brough’s short pass to open the scoring and collected a grubber kick from his skipper to register his second.
Centre Vincent Duport then touched down after collecting Scott Dureau’s high kick, left winger Frederic Vaccari scored a scrappy try at the corner and right winger Damien Blanch went though two defenders from dummy half to add a third. Dureau was unable to kick any of his conversion attempts to leave his side trailing 16-12 and Huddersfield pulled away to open up a 12-point lead by half-time.
McGillvary picked off Leon Pryce’s lofted pass to sprint 70 metres for his first try, despite the valiant efforts of 39-year-old Steve Menzies to track him down, and Brough took his goal tally to four from five with a penalty on the stroke of half-time.
The Catalans conceded just those two points while down to 12 men, with Dureau in the sin bin for a professional foul, but their defence cracked again immediately on his return when Ferres squeezed the ball out of a tackle near their line for Luke George to go over for his side’s fifth try.
Second rower Zeb Raia went through some weak Huddersfield defence to pull a try back for the visitors on 54 minutes but Thomas Bosc had no more success with the boot than Dureau as he sliced the conversion attempt wide.
The errors continued at an alarming rate but Huddersfield maintained their concentration to add five further tries in the last 23 minutes. Hooker Shaun Lunt got his 16th of the season after supporting a burst from halfway by second rower Dale Ferguson and Ferres finished off a break by prop Larne Patrick to complete his hat-trick on 63 minutes.
The Giants then turned on the style against a fast-fading Catalan side, with McGillvary beating Vaccari to the ball from Luke Robinson’s kick and taking Ferres’ pass to complete his hat-trick before Lunt picked up a loose ball from the re-start to get centre Leroy Cudjoe racing away for their 10th try.
In-form Hull KR made it three wins in three meetings against St Helens this season with a 24-12 victory which saw them climb above cross-city rivals Hull into sixth place in the Super League standings.
St Helens, who would have leapfrogged Rovers with victory, trailed 16-0 at half-time and could have no complaints at their first home defeat by the Robins since 2009.
Rovers, who had Travis Burns and Mickey Paea sin-binned by referee Robert Hicks, outscored their opponents three tries to two with Michael Dobson booting six goals from seven attempts.
Hull KR stunned their hosts by taking an eighth minute lead with a Burns try after the Australian stand-off scythed through the defence and Newcastle Knights-bound Dobson slotted over the conversion.
Then almost straight from the restart Burns burst through again with Greg Eden kicking ahead for Brown to shrug off Francis Meli and go over in the corner to open up a 10-0 lead.
But Rovers had to manage without Burns for 10 minutes midway through the first half after he was sin-binned with Paul Wellens after a flare-up. Wellens was furious with the decision and Saints’ plight became worse when Eden scooped up a pass from Dobson to make it 16-0.
St Helens finally opened their account after 49 minutes when Meli took Jonny Lomax’s pass to cross in the corner and Gareth O’Brien landed the touchline conversion. But a Dobson penalty eased Rovers nerves to make it 18-6 after 55 minutes when Saints threatened a comeback.
Rovers had Paea, who this week agreed to join Hull next season, sin-binned on the hour for a professional foul but two more Dobson penalties stretched the advantage to 22-6.
Anthony Laffranchi did manage a converted touchdown for Saints six minutes from time but it was too late with Dobson adding another penalty.
Rugby League - Castleford stun leaders Wigan, Giants thrash Dragons
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