Winning start for Giants
Huddersfield got both the Super League season and the Millennium Magic weekend underway with a 28-18 victory against Warrington.
Last Updated: 12/02/11 5:05pm
Huddersfield got both the Super League season and the Millennium Magic weekend underway on Saturday with a 28-18 victory against Warrington.
The Giants ran in a total of five tries in Cardiff, the pick of them being a stunning brace scored by Danny Brough.
Wolves debutant Joel Monaghan, meanwhile, got his new career off to a fine start with an early try but that was as good as Warrington's afternoon got.
Ben Westwood and Ryan Atkins also scored for Tony Smith's side but they also found themselves losing possession and missing tackles during the match.
Warrington were also very unfortunate in the injury stakes, with Matt King stretchered off with a knee injury in the first half and Simon Grix, Mike Cooper, Lee Briers and also Chris Bridge having to leave the field.
Huddersfield were very impressive in winning their final warm-up match 36-12 against St Helens last week and made a bright start as Leroy Cudjoe's kick found David Hodgson in space.
The winger was in too much space as it transpired, with referee Ben Thaler blowing for offside.
Joel Monaghan was soon causing the opposition problems, and his kick in hand in the fourth minute put Kevin Brown under pressure to force a goal-line drop-out.
Monaghan then reappeared on an overlap almost immediately to touch down Briers' pass, with Brett Hodgson converting.
However, the Warrington newcomers combined to ill-effect moments later when Brett Hodgson's attempt to clear the ball from full-back resulted in a misplaced pass right to Monaghan.
Handed a set 10 metres out, Keal Carlile eventually pounced on his own chip through to the right-hand corner after King failed to control the ball.
Brough missed the extras but the Giants went very close with their next set, although it ended with Keith Mason knocking on just short of the line.
David Hodgson crossed soon after, but the video referee failed to award the try after deciding that Lee Gilmour's - unintentional it has to be said - offload to Jermaine McGilvary in the build-up was in fact a knock-on.
Lucky
Cooper then had a lucky escape in the 27th minute when his pass was intercepted by Brown.
However, faced with the prospect of what would have been a certain try, the Huddersfield skipper failed to control the ball.
Brough more than made up for that two minutes later, though, when he intercepted after Joel Monaghan tried to palm the ball back to Bridge as Warrington pressed for a second.
The scrum-half ran the length of the pitch to touch down after beating Bridge's desperate tackle just short of the line and although he once again missed the conversion, he found the target with a penalty after 34 minutes.
Warrington lost King shortly afterwards and with Grix and Cooper also off the pitch - the former suffering a dead leg - Smith found himself short of substitutes for the second half.
Huddersfield capitalised and, having won three successive penalties, they went 10 points clear after 47 minutes when Darrell Griffin crossed with Brough converting.
Hodgson went close against his former club shortly afterwards but although Huddersfield then conceded a penalty, their defence withstood the subsequent pressure.
They did the same after 57 minutes when Warrington again pressed, the set ending with Atkins this time bundled into touch.
Two minutes later, David Solomona burst through for Warrington but his final ball to Bridge was instead intercepted.
The Wolves were tiring but they still thought they had scored a try on the hour when Joel Monaghan picked up on a loose ball and sprinted from his own half to cross.
However, the try was disallowed when a video review showed that Brough's misplaced pass was in fact deflected by Bridge.
Monaghan's failed intervention proved to be the last hurrah for the Wolves as their defence failed to stop Lunt's advances in the 65th minute, with Brough converting.
Warrington then suffered another injury as Briers was led off with concussion, although they scored their second try almost immediately when Westwood picked up Solomona's pass and carved his way through to the line.
Hodgson converted but Brough then scored his second - a try that was arguably better than his first.
Jinked
Picking up Carlile's pass at halfway, he jinked his way past Ben Harrison and also beat Paul Wood before scoring emphatically and also converting.
Atkins crossed late on - the match reduced to a 12-a-side contest after both Michael Monaghan and Griffin were sin-binned following an altercation - with Hodgson converting.
Indeed there were only 11 Warrington players on the pitch at full time after Bridge also hobbled off in the closing seconds.