Wolves roar back in Cardiff

Warrington battled back from a 22-6 half-time deficit to beat Huddersfield 36-34, as the Millennium Magic weekend got off to a thrilling start in Cardiff.

The Wolves looked set to suffer a fifth straight Super League defeat before Wales captain Lee Briers inspired a second-half revival.

Both sides took advantage of a big pitch and a slippy surface to throw the ball about and play attacking rugby, sharing 12 tries in an open game that ebbed and flowed.

Michael Monaghan's dummy gave the Wolves the first try after just five minutes but the rest of the opening stanza belonged almost exclusively to Huddersfield.

From the kick-off a poor Adrian Morley pass gifted the Giants good field position and when the ball was spread wide, Michael Lawrence went over for his first try for the club.

Ryan Hudson's grubber from dummy half gave Luke Robinson the chance to put Huddersfield ahead and after forcing successive goal-line dropouts, Robinson turned provider.

Dominating

The scrum-half jinked through and Andy Raleigh was on his shoulder to score.

Robinson was dominating proceedings and his grubber kick forced another goal-line drop-out on 34 minutes, although this time Warrington survived.

But there was no reprieve on 38 minutes when Shane Elford's pass put Rod Jensen racing in from distance for a 16-point lead at the break.

Jensen had a chance to put the game to bed on 45 minutes but dropped the ball with a free stroll to the line.

Cue the Wolves comeback with four tries in 18 minutes.

The first two arrived within three minutes, Stuart Reardon muscling over from close range and Lee Briers following up his own kick to score as Kevin Brown missed the bobbling ball.

Briers then made the break to put Andy Bracek in and added the extras himself to put Warrington ahead.

Then it was Matt King's turn to slide in a grubber kick and Bracek had his second try.

Credit

To their credit the Giants refused to lie down and after Morley knocked on in his own 20, John Skandalis crashed over from first receiver.

But a fine individual score from Briers and the kick to follow stretched the lead to eight points and although Andy Raleigh spun over late on, Huddersfield could not muster another score in the 41 seconds remaining to them.