Warrington Wolves heading to Wembley after slaying Giants

WARRINGTON Wolves are heading to Wembley for the first time since 2019 after thrashing Huddersfield Giants 10-46 at a sunny St Helens.

It sees Head Coach Sam Burgess taking the Wolves to the Challenge Cup Final at the first time of asking as his side blitzed the Giants racing into a 0-18 lead in as many minutes.

The Wolves, who defeated St Helens in the quarter-finals, opened the scoring on seven minutes as George Williams swung the ball out to Matty Ashton, who raced downfield and eventually the ball was shifted to Josh Drinkwater to finish.
Josh Thewlis added the extras.

On 10 minutes Ashton motored away again for Wolves’ second try in three minutes with Thewlis again on target to make it 0-12.

After a half chance for the Giants, the Wolves were soon back in control as Danny Walker dummied and skipped over from close range with Thewlis again on target.

On 25 minutes Huddersfield were given some hope when they pulled a try back from their first period of sustained pressure in the game.

Tui Lolohea broke up the middle, and offloaded for Esan Marsters who passed for Jake Connor to send Adam Swift over. But the conversion was wide.

For a while the Giants looked like they could find a way back into the game but then George Williams grabbed another Warrington try from absolutely nothing on 35 minutes.

Walker made the decisive break and flicked a backhanded pass out for Williams who still had half the pitch to cover, but managed to elude Adam Clune to go over.
Thewlis took his time with the conversion, but failed to add the extras as it finished 4-22 at the break.

The first scoe of the second half would prove crucial and after Thewlis had missed a penalty attempt,pt Warrington struck with another try after a kick was brilliantly charged down kick from Ben Currie, who collected the ball and raced away before being taken down.
Huddersfield scrambled to recover, and eventually, Matt Dufty was there to finish. Thewlis on the money with the kick to make it 4-28.
Then on 55 minutes, Matt Dufty makes it back-to-back tries for Warrington and pretty much game over.
The chance came from a Huddersfield knock-on and the ball was moved left and the Giants defence just seemed to part for Dufty as he darted over untouched.
Thewlis delivered another hammer blow with the conversion.
On 63 minutes the Giants grabbed a consolation try as Kevin Naiqama forced the ball out of Sam Powell’s grasp to snatch a try from nothing.
Jake Conner landed the extras.
On 68 minutes things went from bad to worse for the Giants as Jake Connor was sin-binned after making a tackle on Josh Thewlis who was going nowhere when he pushed him back to the ground.
Two tries in the closing minutes from Sam Powell and Rodrick Tai were the icing on the cake for the Wolves who celebrated in the sun in front of their travelling army of fans.

Sam Powell celebrates

After the match Hooker Danny Walker, who has been to Wembley three times as a Wolves fan said: ““I’m over the moon to go [to Wembley]and play. I know my role well in this side; I go out and express myself. That’s what we all do. When Dufty is on form like that, he’s unstoppable.
“It was really warm; it was tough. The scoreline flatters us a bit, Huddersfield are a tough team, they keep going. Credit to our boys, we got the job done. We’ve got one more to go.”
Man-of-the-match Matt Dufty added: ” “Wembley was one our goals at the start of the year. We’ve been talking about it. It is a dream come true; there’s so much history there. The job is not done yet. We trained and prepared really well; Huddersfield are tough but we executed our plan flawlessly.
“The game is steeped in history and it doesn’t get more historic than Warrington v Wigan, it’ll be some experience. Sam Burgess’ team is built on effort; we turned up in the heat and won.”
The Wolves will now face arch-rivals Wigan in the final at Wembley on Saturday, June 8th.
wembley