Warrington Wolves came back from a 6-23 deficit early in the second half to pull back to 24-23 before a last-minute Danny Brough drop-goal levelled the scores tonight at the Halliwell Jones Stadium.
A game that looked to be running away from the Wolves turned into a thriller, when they scored three tries in ten minutes in the second half through Ryan Atkins and two from Ben Harrison, the second a controversial score that was awarded by referee Phil Bentham after he had appeared to ground the ball short of the line.
When Aaron Murphy knocked on a Danny Brough pass after a break by the Giants skipper three minutes later, it looked as though the Giants’ miserable run of ten successive defeats against Warrington would continue.
And with six minutes remaining, the Wolves supporters thought that Rhys Evans had touched down in the corner, but referee Ben Thaler disallowed the try because Evans had dropped it going over the line. The Wolves’ Welsh youngster banged his head on the pitch and was taken off the field in a neck brace.
Brough’s final drop=goal came after a clever interception by Leroy Cudjoe of a dummy-half pass by Michael Monaghan, although Monaghan complained with some justification to the referee that Cudjoe had been offside.
In the first half the Wolves had taken a 6-0 lead when Gareth O’Brien converted his own try, before the Giants took over with tries by Chris Bailey, Ukama Ta’ai and Shaun Lunt, all goaled by Brough, who added a drop-goal almost on the half-time hooter to give the Giants a 6-19 lead.
And three minutes into the second half Jodie Broughton ran 80 metres to touch down as he supported a break by Lunt, although Brough missed the easy conversion, which would prove to be a crucial error.
Both sides have now moved into the top four, at least temporarily, with this result.
A full report and photography will feature in League Express on Monday.
