Huddersfield Giants u19 8 Warrington Wolves u19 17

A MAGNIFICENT Wolves performance in dreadful weather conditions defeated fellow high flyers Huddersfield Giants in the Academy Under 19s Championship at Huddersfield RU YMCA last night.

The cold and driving rain made handling conditions very difficult but it was the young Wolves who coped better, especially in the second half, to record a superb win that saw them move to the top of the league table.

Warrington looked as though they had taken an early lead when centre Toby King went over but the referee disallowed the try on the intervention of a touch judge for a forward pass and it was Giants who did eventually get the first points of the game.

On 14 minutes stand off Will Milner kicked straight from a scrum on the Wolves 20-metre line and winger Jarod Simpson won the race to get to the ball and score wide out on the left. Scrum half Jack Miller added the conversion.

A second disallowed try for Wolves, this time second row Joe Philbin being adjudged to have been in an offside position from scrum half Declan Patton’s kick through, was soon forgotten.

Patton went from first receiver and spotted a gap before racing 30 metres to score on the left but then a minute before the break Miller landed a penalty goal after Wolves were adjudged to have been offside to give his side a narrow 8-4 half time advantage.

The second half started in similar fashion to the first period with both defences on top but just before the hour mark pressure on the Giants line paid off for Wolves as stand off Louis Jouffret found centre Harvey Livett and his pass fed winger Bradley Goulding who stepped back inside to score wide out on the right to level the scores.

Three minutes later Wolves went in front for the first time when Livett landed a penalty goal following an obstruction on the kicker and then shortly afterwards a 40/20 by Patton gave Wolves a scrum deep in the Giants half.

After three strong drives the ball was sent along the line to Jouffret who found Livett and he managed to ground the ball despite the attention of four defenders. He landed a fine conversion to put his side two scores ahead.

Right on the final whistle Patton slotted over a drop goal for Wolves.

Giants: Josh Hunt; Jared Simpson, Tom Battye, George Croisdale, Will Plimmer; Will Milner, Jack Miller; Micky Learmonth, Caanan Smithies, Tyler Dickinson, Will Carlos, Liam Johnson, Mikey Wood. Subs: Dom Jones, Will Cooke, Elliot Morris, Sam Lockley. Tries: Simpson (14 mins). Goals: Miller 2 from 2.

Wolves: Jack Johnson; Brad Goulding, Harvey Livett, Toby King, Jake Eccleston; Louis Jouffret, Declan Patton; Tom Walker, Sean Kenny, George King, Joe Philbin, Sam Wilde, Ryan Maneely. Subs: Robert Holroyd, Morgan Nicholas, Daniel Murray, Daniel Hirst.

Tries: Patton (30 mins), Goulding (59), Livett (66). Goals: Livett 2 from 4. Drop goal: Patton 1.

Referee: Callum Straw (Wakefield).