COOL CLARK
A Giant escape for Wolves as hooker secures Daz-zling win
DARYL CLARK rescued Warrington with a late winner to lift them up to second place.
But they will need to play better than this in Saturday’s Ladbrokes Challenge Cup semi-final against Wakefield at Leigh Sports Village if they hope to get to Wembley.
Bottom side Huddersfield took the lead three times and were just four minutes away from clinching a much-needed win.
Hooker Clark got Wolves out of trouble on this occasion but coach Tony Smith admitted his side need to improve.
He said: “There were some brilliant passages of play and some fantastic tries but there was frustration with some of the errors.
“I thought we invited Huddersfield into the game at times. We need to be better than that, certainly next week.”
Adding to Warrington’s problems was an early head injury to full-back Stefan Ratchford.
He had scored a terrific 95m try to open the scoring and Smith hopes he will be fit to face Wakefield.
The Wolves boss added: “We did not want to take any risks with him but as we have got a seven-day turnaround, I am positive.”
Warrington let winger Gene Ormsby join Giants two weeks ago and it nearly backfired on them. He scored a hat-trick and even though all three were simple touchdowns, he definitely rattled his old team. Wolves had raced into a 10-0 lead with Ratchford’s try and one from Ben Currie, following a break by the lively Rhys Evans.
But Huddersfield struck back well with two tries from Ormsby and one from Aaron Murphy to take a 14-10 lead.
Another Evans break set up Ben Westwood for a try that gave Wolves a two-point lead at half-time but the game continued to see-saw in the second half.
Soft Warrington defence let in Nathan Mason but the home side then seemed to wake up to the danger.
Chris Sandow scored a beauty and Ryan Atkins pounced for another for a 28-20 lead and a title-hunting side should then have taken control.
Instead, they eased off again and let Giants wrestle back the lead, with Ormsby’s hat-trick try and one from prop Craig Huby putting them into a 30-28 lead.
Clark’s try denied them but new Giants boss Rick Stone said: “We kept coming back and having a crack and staying in the game, so there are some positives there. We have taken some steps forward.”