Wolves devour Giants
Warrington moved to within one win of their first Grand Final appearance after demolishing Huddersfield 47-0 in the opening round of the play-offs.
Last Updated: 16/09/11 10:29pm
Warrington moved to within one win of their first Grand Final appearance after demolishing Huddersfield 47-0 in the opening round of the Super League play-offs.
The table-topping Wolves were far too strong for the Giants and will have home advantage and their choice of opponents in their semi-final in two weeks' time.
Huddersfield have a second chance next week and could yet return to the Halliwell Jones for another crack at the Wolves. After this hammering, that may not be a prospect to relish.
Referee Steve Ganson awarded seven penalties in as many minutes in a disjointed opening to the contest, but from the moment Chris Riley scooped up Chris Bridge's bouncing pass and cut inside two defenders to score in the corner, it was almost all one-way traffic.
Moments later it was Bridge's turn to score as he timed his run to perfection to touch down Brett Hodgson's delicate grubber kick.
Huddersfield could barely get out of their own half and were still being caned by the referee's whistle before two tries inside two minutes midway through the opening half just about settled the contest.
Lee Briers' bullet pass put Joel Monaghan over in the corner and four tackles after the kick-off, Michael Monaghan put Riley in for his second try.
More quick hands set up a score for Matt King and although Simon Grix' try was chalked off for a Briers' forward pass, the stand-off rifled over a drop-goal on the stroke of half-time for a 25-0 lead.
Sin-binned
The second half was a similar one-sided story. Two minutes in Scott Grix was sin-binned for holding on in the tackle and three minutes later, Joel Monaghan was over in the corner for his second try.
Brett Hodgson took advantage of King's inside dummy run to scoot round the edge of the defensive line to score and after Andy Raleigh's offload went to ground, Richie Myler hacked on and touched down.
Ryan Atkins got the ninth and final try when he trotted through a tiring defence seven minutes from time, but Warrington's defence never faltered.
Even with 60 seconds left there were five defenders to hold up Darrel Griffin over the line, summing up a remarkable display with and without the ball.
Warrington will have week off and be brimming with confidence on their return to action.
Huddersfield can at least put their miserable away record to one side next week - they have lost eight on the spin on the road - but they will need more than home comforts to recover from this nightmare.