Christopher Irvine's end-of-term report on the Super League

If momentum is the key going into the engage Super League play-offs, the prospects of Warrington Wolves, who lost their last four regular-season matches, appear grim. The club’s penchant for flattering only to deceive is now way beyond a joke. Their reputation as the flakes of the competition was cemented by Saturday’s 38-20 defeat at home by Huddersfield Giants, opponents playing for nothing but pride.

Warrington’s task was straightforward. A fourth win against Huddersfeld this year would have guaranteed a fourth-place finish and a home draw in the first elimination round. However, their defence was abysmal, the number of missed tackles an embarrassment. No wonder fans at the Halliwell Jones Stadium vented anger and frustration after such a wasted opportunity.

The punishment for dropping to sixth place was the booby prize of a trip next Saturday to face third-placed Catalans Dragons, whose formidable record in Perpignan includes a 52-14 hiding that they gave the Wolves in June. Warrington are perverse enough to go there and win, of course, for wildly fluctuating fortunes have become the club’s stock in trade.

It would not have been so bad had they held on to fifth place, but they dropped a rung further on the ladder when Iestyn Harris landed a last-minute penalty goal for Bradford in an 18-16 defeat of Castleford Tigers, the bottom side. It nudged the Bulls up a place and means that they visit Wigan Warriors, who finished fourth after drawing 16-16 with St Helens, in the first of the elimination-round play-offs on Friday.

One point from Warrington’s last four games would have been enough to retain the fourth spot that they had held since July. However, Sean Long’s last-gasp dropped goal for St Helens in a 17-16 win at Knowsley Road last month burst the Wolves’ bubble after seven wins in eight matches under James Lowes, the former Great Britain hooker, who succeeded Paul Cullen in May. All the good work unravelled, as they let slip a big lead at home to Hull Kingston Rovers and were crushed by Castleford.

Defensive improvements in Lowes’s honeymoon period were absent in Saturday’s shambolic display, during which Huddersfield outscored Warrington by six tries to four. “It was shocking,” Lowes admitted. “We were poor throughout. We have a lot of things to work on. The boys worked extremely hard to get into fourth spot and it was in our hands. Unfortunately, we have failed to produce in the last couple of games.

“It’s a disappointing way of ending the season after working extremely hard to get where we were. We’ve run out of gas a bit. There’ll be some harsh words, but we’ll talk about it, set it aside and really look forward. It’s a tough game [against Catalans], but I’m really looking forward to the play-offs with this team.”

Warrington’s side may be depleted in France, too. Adrian Morley, the captain, is a serious doubt with a torn stomach muscle. His absence and that of Paul Rauhihi, who left early against Huddersfield with a back injury, enabled the Giants to dominate up front. Rob Parker, another forward, was also left nursing an ankle injury, but Lee Briers, the stand-off, has apparently shrugged off his knee problem.

Unlike Warrington, Bradford will have the benefit of going into their match against Wigan on the back of three straight victories, the last against Castleford. Semi Tadulala’s third try of the match and Harris’s kick settled a tense affair at The Jungle.

“We did some good things and some not-so-good things, so we won in a different way,” Steve McNamara, the Bradford coach, said. “We played well within ourselves, with an eye on Friday”