Warrington 40-18 Huddersfield

Warrington continued their mini-revival under Tony Smith with an impressive 40-18 win over high flying Huddersfield.

Wolves winger Chris Hicks scored a hat trick for the second successive game to send the Giants crashing to back to back defeats for the first time this season, and put an end to their nine month unbeaten away record.

The home side started as they meant to go on and were 10-0 up after just four minutes. Adrian Morley‘s offload sent Matt King over before the impressive Chris Bridge set up Hicks’ first try.

A Paul Johnson knock on gave Huddersfield their first score, Simon Finnigan grabbing the four pointer, but two further tries from Hicks gave Warrington a comfortable 20-6 advantage at half time.

The visitors briefly threatened a comeback after Paul Whatuira went over early in the second half to reduce their deficit to eight, but tries from Michael Monaghan and Lee Briers put the game to bed.

Brett Hodgson grabbed a late consolation for the Giants but Hicks gave Warrington the final say, converting a Chris Riley try and a penalty goal in the last two minutes.

Huddersfield coach Nathan Brown said his side’s defence let them down.

“Perhaps too many people have been reading the papers – we certainly didn’t get where we are in the league by playing like this.

“We have got to get back to working hard for each other. They were more hungry and aggressive than us.”