Huddersfield Giants 10 Warrington Wolves 14: No Wembley revenge for Brown-inspired Giants

Tony Smith's side came out on top 25-16 at Wembley last August to deny the Giants some long overdue silverware last season, and while the gap was much closer yesterday, the final hooter heralded the same outcome.

Warrington used brute force to hammer Huddersfield, who had an inspired Kevin Brown to thank for keeping them level at 10-10 until the 75th minute.

That saw Chris Hicks evade a clutch of Giants tacklers on the right wing, steeping inside to grab the decisive try.

Despite the defeat, there was plenty of positives for Giants coach Nathan Brown, who saw Paul Whatuira return after suffering off-field personal problems last year.

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"There was no doubt that this was a physical contest against good opposition,". he said.

"Last year, we would not have done half as well in this sort of battle. It shows that we've improved as a team.

"Both sides were up for the fight but I thought there was also a reasonable amount of good footie played.

"I thought Kevin Brown was terrific and Paul Whatuira did well on his return to the side. We'll hopefully see a lot more of him as the season goes on."

Huddersfield were missing Scott Grix – meaning he missed out on facing up to his brother Simon, who plays for Warrington – while playmaker Lee Briers was ruled out for the visitors.

Warrington took an early lead with their first forray into the Giants half. A neat passing move, including a wonderful piece of handling from Ben Harrison, saw Matt King race through. Richie Myler added the conversion.

After whitewashing Hull KR last week, Huddersfield's much-vaunted defence had been broken inside three minutes.

Prompted by scrum-half Luke Robinson, Giants looked for an immediate response but despite several sets close to Warrington's line, the bulksome Wolves defence stood firm.

It needed a flash of inspiration to break down the Wire and came from stand-off Brown. First he wrong-footed his marker, slipped in Brett Hodgson and when the ball came back his way he raced in to score in the corner. Brett Hodgson missed the conversion.

And it was the Giants stand-off who was at the fore of his side's second try. He dinked a low kick through on the last tackle and Whatuira was the man to profit.

Brett Hodgson kicked the conversion to make it 10-6.

It was obvious from the first 20 minutes that Huddersfield could not run through the solid defensive Warrington wall of tacklers, but the tenacity of Brown was proving crucial. A simple case of brains over brawn.

Huddersfield were penalised for holding down David Solomona just yards from their own try line and when the subsequent penalty came out left, King was hand to dive in for a try. Myler's conversion struck the posts to leave the scores tied at 10-10 after half an hour.

Shaun Lunt came close to breaking the parity on the stroke of half-time, but referee Ian Smith over-ruled his try and the players went off after tensions boiled over with Brown and Micky Higham at the centre of the melee.

The second half was an absorbing contest for the 8,567 crowd with neither side able to gain the upper hand.

Myler knocked-on when a try seemed inevitable in the 57th minute after an exciting 30-metre run while at the other end Lunt came close after getting on the end of Robinson's high punt, while David Faiumu failed to ground the ball after wriggling over the line.

Warrington finally broke the second-half deadlock on 65 minutes. Chris Hicks stepped inside from the right wing to beat several would-be Giants tacklers and send the visiting fans tucked away behind the posts into raptures. Myler missed the conversion to leave the score finely balanced at

14-10 with 15 minutes remaining.

Brett Hodgson tried an audacious kick through, picked up his own ball, but his blind pass back only found Solomona and the chance was gone.

Huddersfield coach Brown sought to play down an alleged spear tackle by Michael Lawrence. He was let off with a warning by Smith and Brown said: "I know why the referee stopped the game to have a word with Michael and (skipper) Brett Hodgson.

"But to the naked eye, I didn't think the challenge was that bad. I thought a penalty would have been sufficient."

Huddersfield: B Hodgson, Cudjoe, Lawrence, Whaturia, D Hodgson, Brown, Robinson, D. Griffin, Faiumu, Raleigh, Gilmour, Fa'alogo, Aspinwall. Substitutes: Crabtree, Lunt, Patrick, Horne.

Warrington: Mathers, Hicks, King, Atkins, Riley, Grix, Myler, Morley, Monaghan, Carvell, L. Anderson, Westwood, Harrison. Substitutes: Higham, Wood, Solomona, V. Anderson.

Referee: I Smith (Oldham).