Warrington Wolves 47 Huddersfield Giants 0: Brown determined Giants will bounce back

The Giants became only the second team to be nilled in 85 play-off ties since 1998 but they will have a second chance to make an impact in the top-eight series with a home tie in next week’s preliminary semi-final.

Huddersfield won at the Halliwell Jones Stadium in last year’s play-offs but never looked capable of staging a repeat after making a horrendous start.

They conceded a glut of penalties and found themselves trailing 20-0 after 20 minutes.

“It’s disappointing,” Brown said. “Obviously the result and the scoreboard doesn’t reflect good on us as a group.

“But, if you are on the back of a big penalty count and you give Warrington so much field possession, they can do that to anyone. They showed that against Wigan only two or three weeks ago.”

The Giants have now lost their last eight away games going back to May but will at least have home advantage against Leeds, Catalan Dragons or Hull KR as they bid to reach the last four for the second year in a row.

“We’re still alive next week,” added Brown. “We’ll come in tomorrow, dust ourselves off and sit down and have a bit of meeting and decide where we’re going to head.

“It’s not great but I’ve been in these situations. Last year we got beat by 60 by Warrington and then came back and beat them here later in the year.

“These turnarounds can happen. As a group, we’ve just got to get together and made a decision about which direction we want to head.”

Wingmen Chris Riley and Joel Monaghan scored two tries apiece as the Wolves brushed aside woefully weak resistance to earn themselves a week off and the opportunity to choose their semi-final opponents.

“I thought our performance was very good,” said coach Tony Smith. “I was delighted with the effort and I’m pleased for the players.

“They’re in a good place at the moment. We’re in good form and have been for a while.

“It was one of those games where, if you don’t play tough, you come out wrong side. We learned some lessons from last year’s experience.”

Warrington lost prop Garreth Carvell after 20 minutes with a dead leg while Michael Monaghan picked up a shoulder injury and Brett Hodgson and Ben Harrison both sustained ankle knocks.

“They’ll appreciate the week off,” said Smith.