Wigan Warriors come from behind to defeat Huddersfield Giants in Super League
Last Updated: 13/02/15 11:37pm
Wigan Warriors twice came from behind to register a 24-16 victory over Huddersfield Giants at the DW Stadium on Friday.
The Giants led 16-10 at half-time in the Super League encounter but Wigan roared back with three second-half tries, with prop Ryan Sutton scoring his first for the club with seven minutes remaining to clinch victory.
Huddersfield came into the game on the back of a 19-0 reverse at home to Hull last week, but they made a bright start and took the lead when prop Anthony Mullally took Shaun Lunt's short pass to crash over the line.
Danny Brough's goal made it 6-0 but Wigan gradually worked their way into the game and a sustained spell of pressure told on 17 minutes when centre Joel Tomkins took a delayed pass from full-back Matty Bowen to score Wigan's opening try.
Their second arrived six minutes later when Sam Powell put second rower John Bateman through a gap in the visitors' defence.
Huddersfield regained the advantage on 25 minutes when second rower Jack Hughes, playing on loan from Wigan, took a return pass from centre Leroy Cudjoe and got scrum-half Jamie Ellis over for his first try for the club.
Brough's conversion made it 12-10 and two minutes later, Wigan were reduced to 12 men when Powell was sin-binned for a "chicken-wing" tackle on Eorl Crabtree, and the Giants made the most of the extra space to dominate the final 10 minutes of the first half.
Josh Charnley prevented his opposite number Aaron Murphy from grounding the ball and Jake Connor knocked on while attempting to touch down Brough's kick, but Huddersfield were finally rewarded five minutes before the break when Murphy collected Connor's grubber kick to register his side's third try.
The momentum was still with Huddersfield at the start of the second half but Wigan's defence held firm and they were right back in the game when Tomkins beat Cudjoe to score his second try on 50 minutes.
Ryan Hampshire was unable to add the conversion to leave his side trailing 16-14 and there were chances at both ends, Huddersfield centre Joe Wardle and Charnley spilling passes close to the line as the game continued to ebb and flow.
Craig Huby and Sutton were sent to the sin bin on 62 minutes following a brawl and a run of penalties enabled the home side to subject the Giants' defence to intense pressure.
Wigan struck the crucial blow on 68 minutes when Bateman demonstrated a lethal combination of pace and footwork to break clear on halfway and hooker Michael McIlorum was in support to finish.
Sutton then made sure of the points when he crashed over near the posts, just moments after emerging from the sin bin, and Hampshire rounded off the scoring with the conversion.
