CREWE Wolves' fantastic season came to a close as they lost out in the RLC Shield quarter-finals, 20-16 to Rotherham Giants.

They started with a bang and put the Giants under immediate pressure that paid off with a great try from forward Paul Grant on 7 minutes, Pete Royal adding the extras.

Crewe maintained their dominance forcing errors from Rotherham who were defending well on their own line until Royal took an inside pass to go over next to the posts and added the conversion.

That seemed to awaken the Giants whose uncompromising tackling eventually forced an error from Wolves who knocked on in their own half.

From the resulting scrum Chris Trenum opened the visitor's account with a fine break and on 29 minutes Chris Storey took further advantage to cross out wide, Ian Daintith converting well from touch.

The heat seemed to be taking its toll as Crewe dropped the ball to set Steve Wadsworth on his way from the resulting scrum to cross by the posts.

Daintith's conversion brought a good first half to a close with the Giants 12-16 ahead. The second half started with Rotherham again in the ascendancy with a nice try from dummy half by John Dudley on 45 minutes.

Crewe seemed to lift with the prospect of their first defeat at home looming and a repeat set of six was enough for Chris Arnold to reply with a score in the corner.

That was the last of the points as Rotherham defended well although Crewe exerted good pressure.