Warrington Wolves stand-out players in Huddersfield Giants win

The Wire ran out 30-26 winners in their first home game for a month to avoid a third consecutive Super League defeat.

Here, our reporter Matt Turner picks his five stand-out players from the game with a few honourable mentions...

DANNY WALKER

This man just continues to get better and better.

As well as scoring a try and setting up Sam Kasiano to touch down, nobody in the Wire side made more metres (135) or tackles (32) than the hooker.

This was a superb all-round display from a player who is becoming more and more integral to the team’s fortunes.

If, as expected, Daryl Clark leaves the club at the end of the season, it will be an undoubted blow but Walker is showing why the club have so much faith in him going forward.

Danny Walker celebrates his second-half try (Image: Mike Boden)

GEORGE WILLIAMS

With his regular half-back partner missing, Williams had to take on yet more responsibility for the smooth running of the Wire side.

While he will no doubt mark himself hard for allowing Kevin Naiqama to slip through his grasp and score a soft second-half try, the England captain stepped up to the plate.

It was a typically hard-working display from the number six but when you throw the fact he was plagued by illness before and during the game, it makes his showing even more impressive.

We know he can produce even better performances than this, but the stand-off was at the heart of most of Wire’s positive points – his link-up with both back-rowers to set up tries was particularly impressive.

George Williams runs in for a try (Image: Mike Boden)

GIL DUDSON

The Welsh prop is much-maligned by supporters, many of whom have been underwhelmed by his contributions so far.

It’s true that due to injury and the suspension handed down for his needless red card against Catalans in April, his Warrington career has got off to a bit of a false start, but we can only hope this performance was a sign of things to come.

This was by far his best performance in a Wire shirt to date as he did what Daryl Powell brought him in to do – start the game solidly, run the ball in hard and tackle well.

His 84 metres gained was behind only Paul Vaughan in terms of his middle unit colleagues while his 24 tackles completed was bettered by only Danny Walker (32) and James Harrison (30).

Gil Dudson is tackled by Huddersfield's Theo Fages (Image: Mike Boden)

PAUL VAUGHAN

It feels like Vaughan should be a permanent fixture in this selection.

By the standards he set in the early weeks of the season, people could be forgiven for thinking the Australian is going through a quiet spell but he continues to churn out impressive numbers.

It was another three-figure game for metres made – no forward on either side managed more than his 120. Incredibly, he has only not reached 100 metres twice in 15 Super League matches.

Defensively, too, he was the only Warrington player not to miss a tackle.

A lot is being asked of Vaughan at the moment but he continues to lead admirably from the front.

Paul Vaughan made more than 100 metres for the 13th time in 15 Super League games (Image: Mike Boden)

LUCAS GREEN

This is far from a token mention for the youngster, whose display more than merits his inclusion in this list.

Daryl Powell’s decision to leave him unused at Magic Weekend even when Wire had lost Joe Philbin to injury was heavily criticised by supporters, and the head coach himself admitted he had made a mistake on not putting him on the field against Hull FC.

Here, he showed he can more than handle the step-up to senior level and showed to be the kind of durable forward that can be so valuable.

In hot weather against a fair-sized Huddersfield pack, Green more than held his own and put in some eye-catching carries for his 76 metres gained.

Like any young player finding his feet in Super League, performances may fluctuate but this was a strong sign of what he can do.

Lucas Green put in a long shift off the bench (Image: Mike Boden)

Honourable mentions

Josh Thewlis made plain his intentions to finally nail down the right-wing spot with a solid display that included a stunning individual try and with Connor Wrench performing well inside of him at centre, could we finally be starting to see some continuity on that side?

Both back-rowers had strong games in my view, with James Harrison and Ben Currie running some honest lines that led to tries while the latter was unfortunate to see a second-half effort chalked off by video referee Ben Thaler.

Sam Kasiano handled his starting role relatively well while Joe Bullock also deserves praise for a solid stint off the bench.

Josh Thewlis dives over following his 90-metre run (Image: Mike Boden)