Super League: Warrington Wolves 19-12 Huddersfield Giants

Warrington's Daryl Clark scored a try either side of the break against Huddersfield

Warrington overcame Huddersfield in a brutal Super League clash that saw both sides suffer high-profile injuries.

Wolves lost Josh Charnley and Jason Clark in a first half that also saw Giants' Lee Gaskell go off hurt.

Stefan Ratchford's first-half penalty put Wolves 8-6 up after Jake Wardle's try cancelled out Daryl Clark's opener.

James Gavet's early second-half try edged Giants ahead before Daryl Clark's second try and Anthony Gelling's score sealed Wolves the win.

Huddersfield finished the game with 12 men after Aidan Sezer was sin-binned for kicking the ball away after it ran dead.

With six minutes remaining Gareth Widdop added a drop goal for the third-placed Wolves, while Giants' night ended with Oliver Wilson going off with an ankle injury.

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While traffic on the M62, which delayed Huddersfield's arrival on Merseyside, meant the game kicked-off half an hour late, Daryl Clark ensured the Wire got off to a fast start when he darted over for the game's first try inside six minutes.

The delay added to the chaotic nature of the the hastily-arranged fixture, which on Wednesday afternoon was brought forward from round 21 after both Warrington's and Huddersfield's opponents were unable to play.

The Giants were due to face Castleford, but the return of 12 positive Covid-19 tests on Tuesday forced the game off while Wolves were handed a 24-0 win after opponents Salford forfeited their originally scheduled fixture for Friday.

While Wolves made a strong start, they failed to make their dominance count despite a number of threatening raids, the best of which saw a Widdop try ruled out for a forward pass.

Both sides lost influential figures - Charnley to a dislocated shoulder and Jason Clark with a head knock, while a leg injury forced Gaskell off - before Wardle took advantage of Anthony Gelling's inability to deal with a high kick from Sezer to make it 6-6 after 36 minutes.

Ratchford kicked Warrington back into the lead with a penalty after the first-half hooter sounded, but immediately after the restart Gavet powered over from close range to put Huddersfield up for the first time.

A brilliant break and run from Josh Thewlis on the left edge was eventually finished by Daryl Clark to restore Warrington's lead, with Gelling then doing well to touch down in the right corner to make it 18-12 before the hour.

A yellow card for Sezer with seven minutes left was quickly punished as Widdop's drop goal a minute later gave Warrington a decisive two-score lead.

'Wolves showed grit' - Reaction

Warrington Wolves boss Steve Price:

"It's a shame we picked up a couple of injuries but the guys showed a lot of grit.

"We've been crying out to play, but it showed we haven't played for a few weeks. When we got in good field position we couldn't sustain pressure and errors started to unfold.

"But there were a lot of positives to come out of the game. It shows the character we've got in our team, they were up for a fight. Huddersfield were scrapping hard and we had to earn our stripes tonight.

"It was a good gutsy win, to keep Huddersfield to 12 was pleasing."

Huddersfield Giants caretaker coach Luke Robinson:

"In those clutch moments, the key parts of the game, we don't seem to be able to hold our nerve.

"I was really proud of our efforts in the first half. I thought we had real ascendancy, we just need to be a little bit smarter.

"People talk about teams being mentally tough and they've got to learn and I've got to educate them so that we come away with a victory rather than a narrow loss which we keep doing."

Warrington Wolves: Ratchford; Thewlis, King, Gelling, Charnley; Widdop, Austin; Hill, D Clark, Cooper, Currie, Hughes, J Clark.

Replacements: Murdoch-Masila, Philbin, Davis, Walker.

Huddersfield Giants: Golding; McGillvary, J Wardle, Cudjoe, McIntosh; Gaskell, Sezer; Ta'ai, Moore, Hewitt, J Wardle, McQueen, Lawrence.

Replacements: English, Wilson, Turner, Gavet.

Referee: Robert Hicks (RFL).

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