Warrington dismantled Huddersfield to book Challenge Cup final against Wigan | Challenge Cup

Sam Burgess paid tribute to George Williams after the half-back led from the front to seal Warrington’s place in the Betfred Challenge Cup final with a 46-10 win over Huddersfield.

Williams scored an explosive solo try and inspired much of their eight-try surge as Wolves wrapped up a Wembley meeting with his former club Wigan next month.

Burgess, for whom the win marked an impressive achievement in his first season as head coach, said: “George has always been a brilliant player for us and the group is responding to him.

“There are few players who carry a lot of energy between them and George is one of them. He’s the most experienced player there and all the guys listen to him when he talks.”

Warrington never looked back after centering for a hat-trick in the opening 20 minutes and headed home with full-back Matt Dufty grabbing a brace and Josh Thewlis adding 14 points with the boot.

Burgess dedicated his side’s victory to the supporters who made up the majority of a disappointing four-figure crowd, but insisted his side still have plenty of improvement to find in the coming weeks.

“I think we owe (the fans) that final,” Burgess said. “It’s been five years since they tasted this, but the job is not over and we still have a game to play.

“I thought we were scrappy in some areas at times, but we made some nice attempts. We talked about trying to be consistent and we did really well on the big occasion.

“I wasn’t surprised by the first half, but there were areas where we could have been better. We left a few in there, but I’m glad we took advantage of the opportunities we created.”

Huddersfield head coach Ian Watson promised to hold talks with full-back Jake Connor after the 29-year-old’s display of petulance forced the Giants to play a period of the final stages with 12 men.

Connor’s needless late tangle with Thewlis capped a thoroughly miserable afternoon for his side, who have now slumped to four defeats in a row.

And while Watson appeared upset by Connor’s latest antics, he said: ‘I think I’ll talk to Jake first before I talk about it in the press. He deserves it, but we have to get over it.”

Watson admitted he was “hurt” by his side’s performance, with the trio of early tries sabotaging his side’s game plan and ultimately costing them any realistic hope of booking a second appearance at Wembley in three years.

“We had a plan to come in here and execute and it just didn’t materialize early in the game,” Watson said. “For them to be able to sustain a 12-0 lead is pretty tough. You try to stick with it and parts of it looked good, but when you’re behind there’s always the possibility of trying to force something when you shouldn’t.

“We thought we could get back into the game but George’s try absolutely killed it. Momentum is an important thing in the game and when you lose that momentum, it’s difficult to turn things around.”