Wolves sneak past Giants

2:19am Sunday 20th July 2008

A first-ever hat-trick of tries by Huddersfield full-back Leroy Cudjoe was all in vain as Warrington came from 18-6 down to complete a 19-18 victory over the Giants.

Stand-off Lee Briers secured the Wolves' sixth win in seven matches under new coach James Lowes with a snap drop goal seven minutes from the end, with Huddersfield captain Chris Thorman missing a chance to snatch a point.

The victory strengthens Warrington's play-off prospects while Huddersfield remain in 11th place after losing their first home game since Easter.

It had all looked so rosy for the Yorkshiremen after they dominated the first half, largely through the efforts of the 21-year-old Cudjoe, who had scored one try in his first 12 appearances for the club.

He gave the Giants a dream start when he won the race to Ryan Hudson's neat kick to the line to open the scoring on two minutes.

That followed a fumble by Warrington right winger Chris Riley and it was from another defensive error that Cudjoe scored his second try on 19 minutes as Kevin Penny clashed with his full-back Chris Hicks in trying to diffuse a 'bomb' from Luke Robinson to give the home side a perfect attacking position which Thorman put to good use by sending Cudjoe over for his second.

Warrington, who had Great Britain centre Martin Gleeson playing at loose forward, gradually worked their way back into the game and pulled a try back on the half-hour mark when Briers sent second rower Ben Westwood through a gap in the home defence.

Cudjoe then burst through the first line of defence and held off a valiant last-ditch tackle by Matt King to complete his hat-trick, with Thorman adding his third goal.

Warrington launched their fightback five minutes into the second half when centre Simon Grix fended off the tackle of Stephen Wild to cross for a try and then Briers and Adrian Morley kept the ball alive for prop Paul Rauhihi to touch down.

Robinson lined up a drop-goal attempt in front of the Warrington posts only to knock the ball on but Briers had no difficulty maintaining his composure at the other end to land the all-important one-pointer.

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