WARRINGTON Wolves paid the penalty for early missed opportunites as went down 28-10 At Huddersfield Giants.
Trailing 18-0 at the break the Wolves were poor in most departments and the defeat left them outside the top eight play off places.
Warrington started the brighter in the opening five minutes with the returning Lee Briers making a fine break but winger Chris Riley was not able to collect his through kick.
With a 5-0 penalty count in their favour Warrington created two more scoring opportunities when Louis Anderson knocked on after being put through by Matt King on 14 minutes.
Moments later Ben Harrison knocked on two yards from the try line.
On 19 minutes the Giants took the lead when a short pass from Kevin Brown put Paul Jackson over with Brett Hodgeson adding the conversion to make it 6-0.
Substitute forward Eorl Crabtree started to cause havoc in the Warrington defence and the Giants went further ahead on 30 minutes when Luke Robinson side stepped his way through two would be tacklers to send Scott Moore over with Hodgson again on target.
Warrington were in total disarray with Louis Anderson again knocking on and it was no surprise when Kurt Cudjoe went in for the third try of the half. Hodgeson missed the difficult conversion but added a penalty just before the half-time hooter to make it 18-0 at the break.
Ben Westwood gave the travelling faithful some hope with a try four minutes after the re-start but the hope was short-lived as the Giants increased their lead five minutes later when a Luke Robinson break was finished off by Cudjoe for his second try of the game. Hodgeson added the extras to put the Giants back in command at 24-4.
Warrington continued to drop too much ball and Cudjoe completed his hat-trick on the hour after being set up by a Scott Moore kick. Hodgeson was wide of the target but at 28-4 the home team were well in control.
Warrington gained some late consolation as Brian Carney went in for his first try for the club which was goaled by Chris Bridge but it was too little too late on a disappointing afternoon for the Wolves.
Reflecting on his teams’ performance on returning to his former club Warrington’s Head of Coaching Tony Smith said: “We were a bit flat. We should have got some points early on when we had a series of penalties. That’s where we should have cracked them but we didn’t.
“It all clicked for Huddersfield when they brought Crabtree on. He gave them a real spark. If we had a Crabtree then the game might have been different.
“But as a team we were busted by having several players out. It’s a bit disappointing that some of the others couldn’t step up to the mark.”
Teams:
Huddersfield Giants :1. Brett Hodgson 21. Leroy Cudjoe 5. David Hodgson 13. Stephen Wild 4. Paul Whatuira 19.Michael Lawrence 3. Kevin Brown 7. Luke Robinson 6. Liam Fulton 9. David Faiumu 10. Darrell Griffin 24. Shaun Lunt 16. Keith Mason
Substitues 2. Martin Aspinwall 20. Scott Moore 8. Eorl Crabtree 15. Paul Jackson
Warrington Wolves :30. Richard Mathers 4. Matt King 19. Chris Riley 32. Brian Carney 24. Ben Harrison 25. Chris Bridge 6. Lee Briers 7. Michael Monaghan 2. Paul Johnson 12. Ben Westwood 11. Louis Anderson 15. Paul Wood 16.Garreth Carvell
Substitues 21. Matty Blythe 22. Lee Mitchell 18. Michael Cooper 9. Jon Clarke
Atten: 7,107
Pictures show Ben Westwood scoring for Warrington and reflecting on another bad day at the office for some of his team mates.
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