Huddersfield 28-16 Widnes: Six-try win for Giants
Last Updated: 13/02/17 2:44pm
Huddersfield made it a miserable start to the new Betfred Super League season for Widnes as they scored six tries in a 28-16 victory.
The Giants fell behind to an early Charly Runciman try but recovered to lead 20-6 at half-time with Jermaine McGillvary crossing twice before the break with Lee Gaskell and Tom Symonds also touching down.
Aaron Murphy and new skipper Leroy Cudjoe added second-half tries in what was a polished performance.
Widnes almost snatched an early lead after a neat Gilmore kick but McGillvary cleared the danger just in time with Rhys Hanbury ready to pounce.
But Huddersfield did fall behind after five minutes when neat passing from Tom Gilmore and Hanbury sent Runciman racing over and Hanbury converted.
Huddersfield rallied but a dropped pass by Symonds ended a promising attack.
A penalty conceded by Jay Chapelhow proved costly for Widnes after 13 minutes with Danny Brough, Ryan Brierley and Cudjoe combining for McGillvary to cross in the corner and make it 6-4.
Hanbury then failed to gather a Brough kick with Mellor sending Gaskell over. Brough tagged on the conversion to
fire his side ahead 10-6 after 18 minutes. Then McGillvary touched down from a neat Cudjoe kick and stretch the advantage to 14-6.
Another Hanbury fumble, when he lost the ball in a heavy tackle, put Widnes in more trouble and Symonds plunged over from a short pass from Brough, who added the extras, to make it 20-6 after half an hour.
Huddersfield suffered an injury blow early in the second half with Symonds helped off and then the battered Hanbury needed more treatment after taking a heavy knock collecting another high Brough kick.
Huddersfield added a fifth try after 55 minutes from Murphy to extend the lead to 24-6. Brough missed his third conversion but it did not look as though Huddersfield were going to need his kicks.
Widnes substituted Gilmore on the hour and would have scored had Bridge not thrown out a poor pass.
A well taken try from Stefan Marsh 10 minutes from time was late consolation for the outplayed Vikings who also added a late effort from Hanbury, but Huddersfield had the last word as they added a sixth try through Cudjoe.
