Wigan v Huddersfield: Five takeaways as ‘heroic’ Giants hand Warriors ‘reality-check’ in thumping win

Following Huddersfield Giants’ 34-16 win over Wigan Warriors at the Brick Community Stadium, here are our five key takeaways from the round six clash.

The top line

Huddersfield Giants secured a thumping 34-16 win over Wigan Warriors, in arguably the biggest shock result of the season so far.

As the scoreline suggests, the Giants were thoroughly deserving of their mammoth victory, simply besting Wigan from the get-go.

The opening 20 minutes were a slow-burner, with the sides swapping half-chances, but Huddersfield quickly burst into life in the latter stages of the opening stanza. Jacob Gagai made the first dent in the scoreboard just after the 20-minute mark, before two further scores from Tanguy Zenon and Niall Evalds in the following 15-minute spell.

Wigan did eventually hit back on the stroke of half-time, as Zack Eckersley went over in the corner, but it proved just a speedbump for the Giants as they added two more in the opening 20 minutes of the second-half through former Wigan man Jacob Douglas and new signing Connor Wrench – who was making his return to Super League following his retirement last year.

The hosts did eventually get one back through Jack Farrimond, but again, it was just a momentary flash for Wigan as Adam Clune crossed for Huddersfield’s sixth of the day. For good measure, Zenon slotted over a cheeky penalty goal as well.

Wigan did get the final laugh, though, as Liam Farrell dotted down in the 79th minute, but the story had already been told. Huddersfield Giants had thrashed the Warriors.

Game in numbers

As the scoreboard suggests, Huddersfield were full value for their victory, and that’s reflected in the stats.

Across the 80 minutes, the Giants notched a whopping 1303 metres from their 227 carries ball-in-hand, nearly 350 metres more than their Cherry and White counterparts in the process (957), with four of their players ending the game in the top five metre-makers come full-time too.

Within that, they were very accurate, making just six errors across the game and posting a 91% completion rate. They also dominated possession, notching 59% across the 80.

Their defence was also rock-solid, making 263 completed tackles for just 22 missed (92% success rate).

What must Luke Robinson be feeling

You surely have to feel a bit sorry for the former boss today, given this victory came in the immediate aftermath of his sacking.

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The decision to hand Robinson his marching orders was always going to be met with an intense spotlight, considering their injury woes in recent weeks, but as we’ll come onto, Huddersfield had a lot of their key men back today for the first time this season.

It came a week too late for the former boss, which will surely sting.

Impact

This was such a massive improvement from the Giants, night and day compared to their recent displays against Hull KR and Bradford Bulls, and a large chunk of that was down to the returning players.

Adam Clune and Niall Evalds were tipped to make a huge return after their lengthy lay-offs, and that proved just the ticket. Their combination in the spine added a level of stability into their attack, which then seemed to free up fellow spine man Tui Lolohea to inject himself into proceedings too.

That new-found attacking freedom in turn seemed to change their approach ball-in-hand. They threw shape at the Warriors defence with virtually every attack, with every player a genuine threat as well. In turn, this caused the Warriors defence to crab in, allowing the impressive outside backs unit of Tanguy Zenon, Connor Wrench, Jacob Gagai and former Cherry and White Jacob Douglas extended time and space on the ball to just cause havoc.

Today showed just how good Huddersfield can be with their key men out on the field. Today, they were heroic.

Today should be a day for the Giants to enjoy.

Tough day out

This was such an uncharacteristically poor performance from Wigan Warriors in virtually every department, and will surely serve as a reality check for them after their previously unbeaten start to the season.

Nothing seemed to go right for the Warriors. They were bested through the middle of the park, their attack was stagnant – aside from a few sparks from Noah Hodkinson and Jack Farrimond – and they were found wanting in defence as Huddersfield exposed them out wide.

Wigan have been the trend-setters in the opening rounds of the season to date. Seven wins from seven in all competitions, top of the Super League table and besting the best attack and best defence in the top flight, but they were just so off the boil today.

There shouldn’t be any real panic from the Warriors in the aftermath, after all, every team will lose at some point in the season, but this will likely lead to a little bit of a reality check moving forwards.

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