Warrington sweep aside Huddersfield to go third
Albert Hopoate scored Warrington's first try during a comfortable night
- Published
Betfred Super League
Huddersfield (0) 4
Tries: Swift
Warrington (28) 34
Tries: Hopoate, King, J. Smith, Stone, Philbin, Ashton Goals: Sneyd 5
Warrington Wolves continued their excellent start by sweeping aside Huddersfield Giants at the Accu Stadium to go back above holders Hull KR and third in the Super League standings.
The Wire ran in five unanswered tries in the first half as they completely outclassed their opposition in a one-sided opening 40 minutes.
Warrington's experienced half-back Marc Sneyd kicked five goals to move second in the all-time Super League goalscorers list - replacing former Huddersfield player Danny Brough - with only Kevin Sinfield now ahead of him.
It was a chastening night for Huddersfield who drop to bottom of the table with just two victories to their name after a third Super League defeat in a row.
Albert Hopoate opened the scoring for Warrington in the 10th minute, capitalising on a drop under next to no pressure by Niall Evalds to race clear to open the scoring in the right corner.
Sneyd then used all his experience to kick behind the Huddersfield backline to the onrushing Toby King to dot down on his 250th career appearance. It was the sixth successive game the Huddersfield-born centre had scored against his home-town club.
Ewan Irwin's zippy cut-out pass found Josh Smith to weave inside Adam Swift and score the Wire's third, before Sam Stone found oceans of room in the Huddersfield backline to dive over just five minutes afterwards.
In a merciless first period from the visitors, Warrington winger Matty Ashton thought he had scored their fifth try but it was chalked off for a knock-on.
Joe Philbin then crashed over from close range in front of the sticks. Evalds meanwhile trudged off the field with a head injury as his team-mates were booed off at the break.
Warrington's Matty Ashton scored his sixth Super League try of the season
The half-time interval gave Huddersfield the chance to stop the waves of Warrington attacks and Wire's James Bentley let his frustrations get the better of him with a high shot on Jacob Gagai, which saw him spend 10 minutes in the bin.
With Bentley off the field, the Giants thought they had used their man advantage to get on the scoreboard on the hour mark when Swift spun superbly to score on the left edge, but their consolation was ruled out for an obstruction.
Swift eventually did score moments later, cutting inside two missed Warrington challenges on the touchline to finish with aplomb for his 30th try in 35 Huddersfield appearances.
After Bentley had a try disallowed for Warrington for a knock on, Tui Lolohea turned on the after burners and dived over for what looked like Huddersfield's second try of the night, but on review it was decided the stand-off had knocked on in the act of sliding over.
To add to Huddersfield's woes Jordan Crowther's cut-out pass out of dummy half found Ashton in front of the try line and the winger had the simplest of tasks to dot down Warrington's first points in the second half with just seven minutes left.
Sneyd then slotted the extras beautifully from touch.
'We could quite easily have put the cue in the rack at half-time' - reaction
Huddersfield interim head coach Liam Finn told the Giants' website:
"We could quite easily have put the cue in the rack at half-time.
"The game was gone on the scoreboard and clearly Warrington were the better team in the second part of the first half. There's a conscious decision there whether you check out or stay in it.
"Thankfully for me we stayed in it and showed some real commitment. There were some really big individual efforts from all of our pack in the second half in how they pushed through for longer than they would normally play in tough conditions."
Warrington centre Toby King told the Wolves' website:
"That try was all down to Sneydy, I'm not taking the credit for that.
"But it's nice to score against the home town. I was here in the academy at 15 -16 - not good enough - so to keep scoring tries against them... I'll take that any day of the week.
"It's good to get the win. Playing against my brother made it a bit more special again."
Huddersfield: Evalds; Swift, Gagai, Wrench, Douglas; Lolohea, Clune; Patolo, Woolford, Rogers, O'Donnell, Rushton, Powell.
Interchanges: Milne, King, Rush, Cozza.
Warrington: Webster; Hopoate, J. Smith, King, Ashton; Irwin, Sneyd; Thomas, Walker, Byrne, Bentley, Stone, Currie.
Interchanges: Sipley, Crowther, Philbin, Tanginoa.
Sin bin: Bentley.
Referee: James Vella.
