HEAD Coach Sam Burgess praised his rampant Warrington side’s discipline as they underlined their Super League title credentials by thrashing Huddersfield 66-0 at the John Smith’s Stadium.
Prolific England winger Matty Ashton bagged an early brace before James Harrison, George Williams, Matty Nicholson and Cai Taylor-Wray all crossed to make it 36-0 at the break.
Josh Thewlis scored before Ashton completed his hat-trick in the 63rd minute and Taylor-Wray claimed his second before Toby King, Nicholson again and Rodrick Tai all touched down as Burgess’ men ran in a total of 12 tries.
Wolves coach Burgess said of his team’s performance: “I thought they were disciplined.
“I was happy with the discipline and how we planned for the game.
“There was a tiny bit where we went off track but we got back on track and it was a pleasing performance.
“I was proud of the defence but Huddersfield have got a lot of guys out yet I still wanted us to be disciplined and we were.
“We could have taken our foot off the gas but we were disciplined enough to keep at it.”
The result leaves Burgess’ third-placed side in with an outside chance of finishing the regular season in second heading into the final round of fixtures next week.
Warrington host London Broncos on Friday in their last regular-season game as they bid to potentially overhaul Hull KR into second spot and secure a home play-off semi-final.
Burgess added: “It’s something I have completely stopped worrying about.
“When things are out of our hands, I don’t waste too much energy on it.
“We’re going to have to be good for three weeks.
“The intensity of the game wasn’t there, but we’ll get a good contest next week before the play-offs.”
The Giants were severely understrength with many first-choice players missing through injury, but coach Luke Robinson admitted his side should have been more competitive.
Robinson said: “We knew it was going to be tough – you only have to look at their side and the players who weren’t playing.
“Our starting 13 was pretty much gone but even so, with a young, inexperienced team, that’s definitely not what we’re going to be about going forwards.
“That’s still not acceptable for a Giants player.
“Warrington are a good side and they’re going to be challenging this year, but we couldn’t control the ruck and it was men against boys.”
