Anderson era opens with late loss for Giants

New Huddersfield coach Paul Anderson admitted his team face a crisis of confidence after watching their dismal run continue with a 35-14 home Super League defeat by Wakefield yesterday.

Anderson, who succeeded Australian Nathan Brown in the fall-out from the Giants' Challenge Cup semi-final defeat by Warrington, watched his side fritter away a 14-6 lead, conceding 29 points in the last 29 minutes.

"If you look at the things that have happened through the week, you're probably right to say that," Anderson replied when asked whether his side, who have won just one of their last nine matches, is suffering from fragile confidence. "We managed to get ourselves 14-6 up but without really playing. We let ourselves down in a lot of areas.

"We failed to keep control of the ball. We had a lot of field position early in the first half and didn't do anything with it.

"We tried to be too sideways and didn't build any pressure. We were too lateral: we were like a pair of windscreen wipers. We tried to go around them and, to their credit, they defended well."

At the PROBIZ Coliseum, Ben Westwood scored two first-half tries for Warrington Wolves as they beat Castleford Tigers 40-26 despite a rally by the hosts.

The Wolves led 30-0 at the half- time thanks to Westwood's pair and Joel Monaghan, Ryan Atkins and Chris Riley each crossing the line. But Nick Youngquest scored twice for Cas, with Rhys Williams, Richard Owen and Lee Mitchell also going over as the hosts made a game of it.

David Solomona and Stefan Ratchford scored Wolves' second-half tries to keep them clear.