Warrington Wolves talking points after Huddersfield thrashing

It is a struggle to think of anything that went wrong in this merciless destruction of Huddersfield Giants that allowed them to keep their chances of finishing second in Super League very much alive.

Our Wire reporter Matt Turner watched the 12-try demolition job and brings us his five key post-match talking points in “The Morning After”

Burgess gets everything he wanted

If Sam Burgess would have had a checklist of things he wanted to see at the John Smith’s Stadium, it’s hard to imagine any of them would have been unfulfilled.

Improvement in attack? Tick. Maintaining focus and steel in defence? Tick. Keep 13 men on the pitch? Big tick. Unscathed in terms of injuries? Tick.

And then, there is the points difference…

While he’s not admitting it publicly, the Wire boss will have wanted to see his side fight tooth and nail for second spot while it’s still alive and by effectively eradicating the gap between themselves and Hull KR in that respect, they showed they still feel like they’re a big chance.

Context has to be applied in terms of the level of opposition they faced but in pretty much every respect, this was as perfect an evening as Warrington could have asked for.

(Image: Neil Ashurst/P&B Pictures)

Wire keep their foot down

As Burgess himself said after the game, the Wire players had “some decisions to make” at half time with the game pretty much won.

At 36-0 up, do they put the cue in the rack or do they keep their foot on the Giants’ throats and show no mercy.

Despite a slightly quiet period before the hour mark in which things got slightly loose, they certainly chose the latter.

It means that both league fixtures against Huddersfield this year have been won by an aggregate score of 114-0. When the Challenge Cup semi-final is added, that total boosts to 160-10.

They showed as well how much they value defence even if they didn’t have to do much – perfect evidence of that was found in Cai Taylor-Wray’s chasing down of Jake Bibby after the Giants man raced clear on an intercept in the game’s final seconds.

Cai Taylor-Wray's second try of the night was one of five tries Wire scored in the final 16 minutes (Image: Neil Ashurst/P&B Pictures)

Several players hitting top gear

The priority, it has been said, in these next couple of weeks is to make sure Wire’s game is in as good a shape as it can be as the play-offs start.

Things look pretty in-tune with a couple of key players such as Matt Dufty and Paul Vaughan to add back into the mix, and several individuals are starting to show signs of clicking into gear.

As he often is, George Williams was at the heart of everything from a Warrington perspective as he bristled with creative intent.

There have been a couple of whispers that he is playing through the pain barrier due to the foot injury that saw him sit a game out last month, but he’s got a funny way of showing it if he is.

Not far behind him in this one was Ben Currie, who after a quiet few weeks has showed in the past two games the kind of form that immediately followed his move to loose forward earlier this year.

Matty Ashton’s stunning try-scoring run continued as his hat-trick made it 15 tries in his past 10 Super League appearances while Joe Philbin was again impactful off the bench, keeping up the promising form he has built up since returning from injury.

Ben Currie put in another superb display at loose forward (Image: Neil Ashurst/P&B Pictures)

Completing the set

Home is clearly where the heart is for Burgess given his team’s exemplary record in his native Yorkshire.

Wire have crossed the Pennines on six occasions this year and have been victorious on every occasion having beaten all of the White Rose county’s Super League representatives on their own patch plus a Magic Weekend victory at Elland Road.

No other team from this side of the hills can boast a perfect trans-Pennine record this year and it’s a continuation of Warrington’s superb away record on the whole having lost just three times on the road.

The likelihood is they’re going to need to have at least one more game in Yorkshire at Hull KR if they are to reach Old Trafford, so will it be lucky seven?

Wire have now won all six of their matches in Yorkshire this season (Image: Neil Ashurst/P&B Pictures)

Top-two race stays interesting

The nature of this victory at the very least keeps an element of drama in the top-two race going into the final round of fixtures.

Wire still need a slip-up from Hull KR when they visit Leeds Rhinos, who themselves need to win to stand any chance of gatecrashing the top six, but they now don’t need to go chasing points against London Broncos.

They were looking at an 82-point gap in terms of points difference before this game but now, it’s down to just 16.

In fairness to them, the Robins have had the answer to pretty much every question posed to them in recent weeks but Warrington are keeping them honest.

Wire have cut the points difference gap between themselves and Hull KR from 82 to 16 (Image: Neil Ashurst/P&B Pictures)