Wire thrash hapless Giants to maintain form into play-offs
Betfred Super League
Huddersfield (0) 0
Warrington (36) 66
Tries: Ashton (3), Harrison, Williams, Nicholson (2), Taylor-Wray (2), Thewlis, King, Tai. Goals: Thewlis (9)
An impressive Warrington Wolves side ran in 12 tries as they thrashed Huddersfield Giants at The John Smith's Stadium.
Wolves winger Matty Ashton was the star of the show with his third hat-trick for the club while James Harrison, George Williams, Matty Nicholson and teenager Cai Taylor-Wray added to the scoring before the half-time klaxon.
Further second-half tries from Josh Thewlis, a second from Taylor-Wray, Toby King, another from Nicholson and Papau New-Guinea international Roderick Tai added gloss to an exemplary attacking display.
Wire's fifth win in six Super League matches means they take their fight for second spot with Hull KR to the final week of the regular season while Huddersfield stay ninth.
Wire opened the scoring after King offloaded to England international Ashton to dot down in the corner.
Scrum-half Williams then played a superb ball over to Ashton to score his and Wire’s second.
Ashton thought he had his hat-trick within 20 minutes but the TMO decided that he was just taken into touch by a terrific last-ditch tackle from Giants' Tui Lolohea.
Danny Walker’s superb kick behind the Huddersfield defence then earned Wire a 40/20 which allowed the opportunity for Ben Currie to offload superbly to the on-rushing James Harrington to crash over under the sticks.
England captain Williams then dived over at the side of the posts to put Wire 24 points clear just after the half-hour mark.
Canberra Raiders-bound Nicholson got his first of the match after breaking through some weak Giants defending to crash over and two minutes later, a catalogue of errors from Giants’ Lolohea and then Aidan McGowan allowed Taylor-Wray to dot down his first.
Five minutes into the second half, Giants' 19-year-old Jack Billington, making his full debut, was sent to the sin-bin for 10 minutes for a high tackle.
In his absence, Thewlis weaved inside the Giants defence to get a well-deserved try of his own following an excellent performance with the boot which saw him land nine goals in total.
Ashton then completed his hat-trick before teenage sensation Taylor-Wray scored his second of the match under the posts.
Five minutes later, Toby King was too strong for the Giants defence as he crashed over against his former club to score his ninth Super League try of the season.
Nicholson then went over for Wire for his second before Tai ran from deep to go alone and roll over the line to complete the scoring in a superb team display.
'It was men against boys' - reaction
Giants coach Luke Robinson:
“We knew it was going to be tough – you only have to look at their side and the players who weren’t playing.
“Our starting 13 was pretty much gone but even so, with a young, inexperienced team, that’s definitely not what we’re going to be about going forwards.
“That’s still not acceptable for a Giants player.
“Warrington are a good side and they’re going to be challenging this year, but we couldn’t control the ruck and it was men against boys.”
Wolves coach Sam Burgess:
“I was happy with the discipline and how we planned for the game.
“There was a tiny bit where we went off track but we got back on track and it was a pleasing performance.
“I was proud of the defence but Huddersfield have got a lot of guys out yet I still wanted us to be disciplined and we were.
“We could have taken our foot off the gas but we were disciplined enough to keep at it.
"The intensity of the game wasn’t there, but we’ll get a good contest next week before the play-offs.”
Huddersfield: Lolohea, McGowan, Marsters, Carter, Wallis, Clune, Russell, Salabio, Deakin, Greenwood, Livett, Bibby, Savelio
Interchanges: Rush, Ikahihifo, Billington, Bibby
Warrington: Taylor-Wray, Thewlis, Tai, King, Ashton, Williams, Drinkwater, Yates, Walker, Musgrove, Bateman, Musgrove, Currie
Interchanges: Powell, Philbin, Crowther, Harrison
Referee: Tom Grant