Super League: Warrington Wolves 50-19 Huddersfield Giants
- Published
Warrington's Blake Austin is top of Super League's try-scoring charts with 14 so far this season
Betfred Super League |
|---|
Warrington (12) 50 |
Tries: Currie, Hill, Goodwin 2, Austin 2, Clark, Murdoch-Masila Goals: Ratchford 9 |
Huddersfield (19) 19 |
Tries: Senior, McIntosh, Mellor Goals: Russell 3 Drop-goal: Russell |
Warrington overturned a half-time deficit to thrash Huddersfield and cement second spot in Super League.
When the Wire raced into an early 12-0 lead they looked to be heading for the emphatic win they ultimately secured.
But Louis Senior, Darnell McIntosh and Alex Mellor crossed in a mad six minutes to put the visitors 19-12 up.
Bryson Goodwin began the Wire onslaught just after the break and Steve Price's side went on to cross five more times in the second period to hit 50 points.
They remain four points behind leaders St Helens, who also racked up a half-century in their emphatic win over Catalans.
But Warrington's victory was nothing like as straightforward as a glance at the scorecard would suggest.
While Ben Currie and Chris Hill did cross early on, they had to work hard at the start of the second period after the Giants' purple patch of three tries and Oliver Russell's drop-goal just before the interval.
After Goodwin's first try got Warrington going they still needed the boot of Stefan Ratchford to nudge them ahead via three successful goals.
Blake Austin touched down either side of a Daryl Clark score to pull them clear and break Huddersfield's resistance. Goodwin then grabbed his second, Ben Murdoch-Masila got in on the action and Ratchford added a late penalty to bring up 50 points.
Warrington coach Steve Price:
"We actually played some reasonable football in the first half and it was just that 10 minutes prior to half time. We went error, error followed by penalty, penalty and the next minute we are 19-12 behind.
"We addressed a few things at half time and to come out and score 38 unanswered points in the second half it's a credit to the players and showed the belief we have in each other,
"There are so many more levels for us to go as a football team yet and I'm delighted with the intent we showed in the second half.
"It can be quite difficult over the Easter period and we carry on again next week against Castleford with just a five-day turnaround so it's all about recovery this week and off we go again."
Huddersfield boss Simon Woolford:
"The worst thing that happened to us was half time. We played some good footy at the back end of the first half. The second half didn't start great and we went from bad to worse.
"There's no excuses for getting 50 put on us. To go from 19-12 up at half time to 50-19 at full time is not acceptable. At the moment we're not good enough to go with the top teams, it's as simple as that.
"We spoke about looking for an 80-minute performance against a team like Warrington but we were way off in the second half.
"We lost a couple of players and had players busted but mentally I just think it gets too hard for us sometimes and we have got to turn that around as a team."
Warrington: Ratchford; Lineham, Goodwin, King, Charnley; Austin, Patton; Hill, D Clark, Cooper, Currie, Murdoch-Masila, Hughes.
Interchanges: Tasi, Philbin, Akauola, Davis.
Huddersfield: McIntosh; McGillvary, Uate, Frawley, Clough; Leeming, Matagi; Mellor, Lawrence, Russell, L Senior, I Senior, Joe Wardle.
Interchanges: Murphy, O'Brien, Ta'ai, English.