Warrington Wolves 54 Huddersfield Giants 6: Second-half capitulation sees Wolves run Giants ragged

The end result may have been a resounding one, but the Wolves did not have matters all their way until just before half-time when they were level 6-6.

Brett Hodgson followed up his man-of-the-match performance in the Challenge Cup final win over Leeds with another impressive display against his old club. Hodgson scored a try, helped set up three others and also kicked seven goals with a hat-trick from Joel Monaghan.

Huddersfield made a promising start with Leroy Cudjoe held up over the line. But it was the Wolves who went ahead after 17 minutes with a surging run from Chris Hill allowing Joel Monaghan to collect Stefan Ratchford’s well-flighted kick to score in the corner and Hodgson booted the conversion.

Matt Dawson had a chance to cap his first appearance with a try but failed to take a difficult pass from Greg Eden.

A mistake by Chris Bridge let Huddersfield off the hook and a Scott Grix burst almost brought a try for the Giants.

A Grix 40-20 pegged Warrington back and the Huddersfield stand-off then bamboozled Paul Wood with an outrageous dummy and converted his own try to level the scores 6-6 after half an hour.

But Warrington finally put their best handling move together after 33 minutes with Richie Myler, Ratchford and Hodgson combining to put Bridge over to make it 10-6.

Then Myler’s kick rebounded off the post to allow Ratchford to cross with Hodgson adding the conversion to stretch the lead to 16-6 at the interval.

Warrington substituted head-bandaged Michael Monaghan after another heavy knock but bagged their fourth try with a sizzling move. Hodgson burst onto a pass from Wood for Ratchford to send Myler on an angled run to the line after 51 minutes to stretch the advantage to 22-6.

Then Hodgson went over to make it 28-6. before supplying the final pass for Rhys Williams to cross.

Atkins added to Huddersfield’s woes with a seventh try with Bridge putting Joel Monaghan over in the corner as Huddersfield fell apart.

Monaghan completed his hat-trick before Hill capped a fine display with the final try.

Adterwards, Huddersfield boss Paul Anderson said: “The second half was ridiculous but how good were Warrington? We gifted them possession and never helped ourselves. It was a scrappy game and if we had taken advantage early on it may have been a different story.

“We have to dust ourselves down and try to move on and find a recipe to improve.”

Warrington Wolves: Hodgson, J. Monaghan, C. Bridge, Atkins, Williams, Ratchford, Myler, Morley, M. Monaghan, Hill, Grix, Waterhouse, Harrison. Substitutes: Higham, Wood, Carvell, Blythe.

Huddersfield: Eden, Murphy, Cudjoe, Wardle, Dawson, Grix, Lee, Mason, Robinson, Fa’alogo, Ferres, Chan, Lawrence. Substitutes: Crabtree, Patrick, Cording, Moore.

Referee: G Stokes (RFL).