Wolves miss out on home tie

Warrington have missed out on a home tie in the Super League play-offs after crashing to a 38-20 home defeat against Huddersfield Giants at the Halliwell Jones Stadium.

The result means that the Wolves ended the regular season with a fourth successive defeat - their heaviest at home - with their players also booed off the field at both half time and the final hooter.

To make matters worse for Warrington, their play-off rivals for fifth place in the table, Bradford Bulls, scored a last-gasp 18-16 victory away to Castleford Tigers.

Taken together, Saturday's results mean that Warrington must now travel to Perpignan to play the Catalans Dragons in the elimination play-off next Saturday.

The Bulls, meanwhile, travel to Wigan to play the Warriors 24 hours earlier.

Warrington's miserable night was made worse by the loss of both captain Adrian Morley and fellow forward Rob Parker through injury.

Although Huddersfield went into the match having lost three times to their opponents this year, a fourth successive away win lifts them two places to a respectable eighth place in the table.

With little but pride to play for except pride, the Giants nevertheless looked the more energetic side and scored two tries in the first six minutes, with Chris Thorman and Stephen Wild exploiting gaping holes in the home defence.

Worthwhile

Thorman kicked both conversions to make it 12-0, with Warrington then finally managing to string together a worthwhile move.

In the absence of the injured Lee Briers, England centre Martin Gleeson was acting as playmaker but it was Chris Hicks who inspired their only first-half try.

The full-back brushed off the attempted tackle of Thorman to race into a gap before sending winger Chris Riley over.

Hicks added the conversion to become only the third player - after former Wigan captain Andy Farrell and Leeds skipper Kevin Sinfield - to score in every round of a Super League season.

Slippery conditions brought handling errors aplenty from both sides but the Giants held onto the ball long enough to create two more tries before half-time.

The first came when Kevin Brown, playing out of position at loose forward, stretched out of Michael Monaghan's tackle to cross.

And substitute Ryan Hudson then marked his farewell appearance for the Giants by touching down a Thorman grubber kick that ricocheted off Monaghan.

Thorman kicked the extras to put the visitors into an 18-point half-time lead and then stretched his side's lead further with a penalty six minutes into the second half.

Slick

Warrington finally managed to string together a slick passing move which enabled centre Matt King to grab a second try which gave them encouragement.

Winger Kevin Penny then leapt above Martin Aspinwall to touch down Monaghan's high kick and, when hooker Jon Clarke profited from a handling error by Aspinwall, the Giants' lead was down to just six points.

However, Huddersfield made sure of the win when Wild regathered Luke Robinson's kick and hooker David Faiumu appeared to score his first try for the club on his first start.

Thorman then added a second penalty and converted a second try from Wild in the closing stages to finish with a personal haul of 18 points.