Wolves stage incredible fightback

Warrington Wolves staged an incredible second half fightback from a 22-6 half-time deficit to beat Huddersfield Giants 36-34, as the Millennium Magic weekend got off to a thrilling start in Cardiff.
The Wolves looked set for a fifth straight Super League defeat before Wales captain Lee Briers inspired a second-half revival.
After the match the inspirational Briers showed his full support for Head Coach Paul Cullen, under pressure after four consecutive league defeats, by blaming the players for the poor first half performance.
“The Coach gave us a game plan and we didn’t stick to it,” said Briers.
The Wolves got off to the best possible start when Michael Monaghan dummied over for the first try after just five minutes but the rest of the half belonged almost exclusively to
Huddersfield.
From the kick-off a poor Adrian Morley pass gifted the Giants good field position as Michael Lawrence went over for his first try for the club.
Then Ryan Hudson’s grubber from dummy half gave Luke Robinson the chance to put Huddersfield ahead
and after forcing successive goal-line dropouts, Robinson turned provider. The scrum-half jinked through and Andy Raleigh was on his shoulder to score.
The match was all one way traffic with Robinson dominating proceedings and his grubber kick forced another goal-line drop-out on 34 minutes, although this time Warrington survived.
But there was no let up and on 38 minutes Shane Elford’s pass put Rod Jensen racing in from
distance for a 16-point lead at the break. Jensen had a chance to put the game to bed on 45 minutes but dropped the ball with a free stroll to the line.
Suddenly the Wolves, who had been booed off by their own fans at half time,looked a different team comeback with four tries in 18 minutes. The first two arrived within three minutes, Stuart Reardon muscling over from close range and Lee
Briers following up his own kick to score as Kevin Brown missed the bobbling ball.
Briers then made the break to put Andy Bracek in and added the extras himself to put Warrington ahead.
Then it was Matt King’s turn to slide in a grubber kick and Bracek had his second try.
To their credit the Giants refused to lie down and after Morley knocked on in his own 20, John Skandalis crashed over from first receiver.
But a fine individual score from Briers and the kick to follow stretched the lead to eight points and although Andy Raleigh spun over late on, Huddersfield could not muster another score in the 41 seconds remaining to them in a pulsating finish to the game.