WARRINGTON Wolves’ reserves slipped to defeat at Huddersfield Giants in a hard-fought encounter that could have gone either way in very hot conditions on Saturday afternoon.

After a cagey opening with both sides testing each other out, it was the Giants who took the lead when a cut-out ball from stand-off Kieran Rush found winger Baily Fitzgibbon, who managed to squeeze over in the left corner.

Eleven minutes later, full-back George Flanagan collected a kick deep inside his own half and he sliced through the Wolves defence on a 60-metre run before finding Fitzgibbon in support on his inside to race over at the left of the posts. Flanagan added the conversion.

Two minutes before the break, Huddersfield had second row Andre Savelio sin-binned for a high tackle and from the resulting penalty, Adam Holroyd was held just short but from the play the ball, hooker Ben Hartill scooted from dummy-half to score on the right. Winger Frank Sergent converted to make the half time score 10-6 to the Giants.

Straight after the break, Wire had a scrum 10 metres inside the Huddersfield half and from that, Hartill found scrum half Adam Whalley and his pass was collected by full back Cai Taylor-Wray who shot around the defence to sprint clear down the wing and score wide out on the right.

Sergent converted to put the Wolves ahead but 10 minutes later, the Wolves were punished for a high tackle and Flanagan landed the subsequent penalty to level matters at 12-12.

The Giants went back in front when they were awarded a penalty five metres out and Savelio took a quick tap that caught the Wolves defence cold and he scored on the right. Flanagan converted and added a drop goal shortly afterwards to put his side two scores clear.

Huddersfield made certain of the win three minutes from time when they kept the ball alive close to the line and Flanagan scored at the side of the posts. He converted his own try to make the final score 25-12 in the Giants favour.

After the game, Wolves Reserves head coach Ryan O’Brien said, “Huddersfield were a well-oiled machine and gave us a masterclass in how to dominate territory.

“They built a lot of pressure, which we did well to withstand for the majority of the game, but we just couldn’t find a way to disrupt their flow.

“We need to get better at adapting our attack in certain situations and being more precise, consistent and ruthless with our ends to sets.”

Wolves: Cai Taylor-Wray; Frank Sergent, Zac Bardsley-Rowe, Arron Lindop, Jake Thewlis; Zack Gardner, Adam Whalley; Max Wood, Ben Hartill, Joe Bullock, Adam Holroyd, Nolan Tupaea, Tom Whitehead. Subs: Ewan Smith, Jamie Reddecliff, Bobby Shingler, Noah High. 18th man: Scott Parnaby