Super League: Wigan Warriors 24-16 Huddersfield Giants

Joel Tomkins (centre) has now scored three tries this season

Wigan Warriors fought back to beat Huddersfield Giants and claim their first Super League win of the season.

The visitors led 16-10 at the break thanks to tries from Anthony Mullally, Jamie Ellis and Aaron Murphy, with Joel Tomkins and John Bateman replying for the hosts.

But centre Tomkins went over again for the hosts before hooker Michael McIlorum gave the Warriors the lead.

Ryan Sutton crashed over in the final 10 minutes to seal Wigan's victory.

The Giants, beaten 19-0 by Hull FC on Sunday, started brightly and got the try their early endeavour deserved when Mullally held off three men to touch down.

Shaun Wane's men responded well but good defence preserved Huddersfield's lead until Tomkins eventually found space on the outside to touch down in the corner from a Matty Bowen pass.

Bateman put the hosts in front for the first time after they made the most of a succession of penalties, but the lead proved to be short-lived, with Ellis forcing his way over after Wigan had spilled the ball in the tackle.

With Warriors half-back Sam Powell in the sin-bin, the visitors were denied a further try when Tomkins prevented Jake Connor touching down following a Danny Brough kick.

But Connor kicked through for Murphy to extend Huddersfield's lead to 16-10 at half-time.

Tomkins, playing in the left-centre position rather than as part of the forward pack, went over again in the opening minutes of the second half but Ryan Hampshire failed to land the extras to level the scores.

England winger Josh Charnley then wasted a fine chance to put the hosts back in front when he spilled the ball just yards from the line.

A melee following a scrum saw both teams temporarily reduced to 12 men, Sutton sent to the sin-bin for the hosts and Craig Huby for the visitors.

Wigan started to dominate and got the try that put them in front for the second time when McIlorum went over after fine work from second-row Bateman.

With Huddersfield tiring, young prop Sutton showed good power to get over for his first Super League try and consign the visitors to a second successive defeat at the start of the new season.

Wigan coach Shaun Wane:

"I've very mixed emotions. I've just killed the (victory) song in there.

"I'm happy with the two points but disappointed with the performance.

"We have certain standards so the disruption didn't concern me. I expect players to come in and do certain things but they didn't do them.

"We still expected a better performance than what we got and we're going to have to improve a lot next week.

"We played well in patches but we've just not found that consistency yet. We created some chances but we need to be better. I'm sick of saying that."

Huddersfield coach Paul Anderson:

"I thought our commitment to each other was way in excess of where it was last week.

"We turned up to play, we just lost our composure a couple of times when things went against us.

"At times we had more fluency when we tried to play but we let ourselves down with a bit of execution.

"You have to take your opportunities when they arise in games like these. That's what we have to be better at."

Wigan: Bowen; Charnley, Gelling, J. Tomkins, Burgess; Hampshire, Powell; Crosby, McIlorum, Sutton, L. Farrell, Bateman, O'Loughlin.

Replacements: Clubb, Patrick, L. Tomkins, C. Farrell.

Huddersfield: Connor; McGillvary, Cudjoe, Wardle, Murphy; Brough, Ellis; Huby, Lunt, Mullally, Ferres, Hughes, Ta'ai.

Replacements: Robinson, Crabtree, Bailey, Kopczak.

Attendance: 12,488

Referee: Richard Silverwood (RFL)