Warrington Wolves 36 Huddersfield Giants 20

May 24 2010 by Chris Roberts, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

HOPEFULLY that’s the last the Giants will see of Warrington for a while!

The Wolves once again lived up to their billing as Huddersfield’s bogey team as Tony Smith’s men savoured success over the claret and gold.

This result may not have been as significant as last season’s Challenge Cup final at Wembley or Huddersfield’s humiliating Cup exit at the hands of the Wolves 15 days earlier.

But again it was another dominant display by Warrington over the Giants as Smith’s men underlined their billing as one of Super League’s leading contenders.

Yet, at the same, it wasn’t all doom and gloom for Nathan Brown’s side .

Although no-one could argue with the final score, there were spells during the contest when Huddersfield gave it a really good crack, and when they scored two late tries to make it 30-20 with 12 minutes remaining it did get pretty interesting.

But, such is the way games between these two teams have gone in recent meetings, it was almost inevitable Warrington would have the final say with Paul Wood’s last minute try.

These boys from Cheshire really do know how to rub it in against their West Yorkshire rivals!

Huddersfield went into the contest without the experienced Paul Whatuira and Danny Brough, who were carrying slight knocks and weren’t risked.

But their absence made little difference in the opening moments as the Giants made a dream start.

On the first set, Luke Robinson and Kevin Brown combined to send Scott Grix racing away.

He was eventually halted by Chris Riley, but the retrieving winger held on too long and was immediately sent to the sin-bin.

And within moments Robinson plunged over from acting half-back close to the line.

Brett Hodgson was unable to add the conversion, but that start had already helped to erase some memories of the Cup horror show from just over a fortnight before.

But those thoughts were short-lived as the visitors allowed the kick-off to bounce and go into touch.

If that wasn’t bad enough, the position was immediately created for Adrian Morley to crash over from close range for Chris Bridge to land the goal.

Huddersfield’s response, however, couldn’t have been much better.

Although Chris Hicks was denied a ninth-minute try for a forward pass, the Giants were dominant for the next 10 minutes, with Grix held up over the line and Brett Hodgson just losing the ball over the line.