 Friday night saw a feast of rugby league as three, round two, fixtures of the Engage Super League XX were scheduled, along with the opening fixture of the Kingstone Press Championship as Dewsbury hosted the Sheffield Eagles.
The SKY cameras were at the DW Stadium as the Giants visited the Warriors looking for a repeat of last season’s win. Leeds played host to the Widnes side who earned a hard-fought draw with the Warriors last weekend and Hull FC, with zero in the points against column, entertained the Wolves.
All TV eyes were on the DW Stadium, fearing the worst for the Giants after last week’s home nilling by Hull FC. A late withdrawal of half-back George Williams saw the kick-off delayed as eighteenth man Ryan Hampshire retrieved his kit out of the washing basket.
It took the Warriors a while to adjust their game plan and they didn’t get the ball in hand until after the Giants had taken the lead through Mullally in the sixth minute. The Warriors were back within two after twenty minutes when Joel Tomkins found the line after good Warriors pressure and the home side hit the front after twenty-three when Bateman found a gap after quick Wigan hands.
But this was a real tit-for-tat game between two apparently evenly matched sides. On twenty-six it was the Giants back in front after Ellis evaded two weak Wigan tackles to score under the sticks and when Sam Powell was sin-binned for a ‘chicken wing’ tackle a minute later it was the visitors who appeared to be in the ascendancy.
As Powell returned it seemed to have signalled that Wigan had weathered the storm but Huddersfield struck just before half-time when a Connor grubber to the corner was grounded by Aaron Murphy.
Wigan struck first blood in the second half when Joel Tomkins went in for his second. Hampshire missed the conversion but the Warriors were back within two at 14-16. Tempers were starting to fray as the Giants hung on and Wigan were becoming increasingly frustrated. They boiled over on the hour mark and a twenty-six man brawl concluded with Huby and Sutton taking ten minute breathers.
From then on in it was all the home side.
On sixty-eight a fantastic sixty metre break from Bateman saw him to the Giants twenty before he passed outside to McIlorum to give the Warriors a narrow 18-16 lead. The final score of the game came after relentless Wigan pressure as Sutton crossed and Hampshire goaled to give an eight point margin at 24-16 and Wigan their first win of the season.
This was a much better Giants performance but they faded badly in the last twenty, Wigan will have been delighted at their staying power to grind out a win after throwing away a point at Widnes last weekend.
An entertaining game which the Warriors just shaded, reflected in the result.
Wigan: Bowen, Charnley, Gelling, J. Tomkins, Burgess, Williams, Powell, Crosby, McIlorum, Sutton, L. Farrell, Bateman, O’Loughlin. Subs: Clubb, Patrick, L. Tomkins, C. Farrell.
Huddersfield: Connor, McGillvary, Cudjoe, Wardle, Murphy, Brough, Ellis, Huby, Lunt, Mullally, Ferres, Hughes, Ta’ai. Subs: Robinson, Crabtree, Bailey, Kopczak.
Referee: Richard Silverwood
Attendance: 12,448
The Rhinos started their home campaign against last week’s 12-man heroes the Widnes Vikings. There was nothing to choose between the two sides in the first half as a converted Hardaker try was cancelled out two minutes later by a converted four pointer from Manuokafoa.
A great crowd of fourteen thousand must have been chewing their nails at what the second half would bring but the Rhinos fans need not have worried as their side ran riot with a flawless second half performance.
Ryan Hall, Adam Cuthbertson on home debut, Tom Briscoe, Danny McGuire, Kallum Watkins, and Kevin Sinfield all ran in tries without Widnes troubling the scorers. It was a convincing 38-6 pummelling of the Vikings as Leeds went second in the table and demonstrated that they had learned a few defensive lessons after last weekend’s points frenzy at Hull KR.
Hull FC played hosts to the Warrington Wolves in a game which promised to be as close as they come and the twelve thousand that went to the KC Stadium were treated to quality rather than quantity as the sides ended the game separated by a single drop goal after both sides only managed to get over the whitewash once.
Warrington struck on the half hour with a converted Daryl Clark try and just before the hooter O’Brien slipped over a drop goal, the score which would turn out to be decisive.
Tom Lineham gave the home side hope with his sixty-fifth minute try which was converted by Sneyd for 6-7 but the stalemate continued until the final hooter with the Wolves taking the two points back to the Halliwell-Jones and leaving Hull to ponder what might have been.
In the Championship it looked like it would be a winning start for the Sheffield Eagles who bossed the first half hour and opened up a ten point lead thanks to tries from Turner and Davey, the second converted by Brambini. Dewsbury fought back with an excellent ten minute spell before the half-time hooter during which Grant and Thackeray both scored converted tries for a 12-10 lead.
The game was in the balance for almost the entire second half and a Thackeray drop goal on seventy-six extended the home lead to three points before Grant added his second try a few seconds from the hooter to seal a 19-12 win.
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