IN THE wake of their coach being sacked, under Super League’s first-ever female referee, winless Huddersfield inflicted Wigan’s first loss of 2026.
It didn’t seem like newly promoted York beating world champions Hull KR on the opening night of the season could be eclipsed in terms of magnitude of upset.
But on a windy, sunny Saturday afteroon at the Brick Community Stadium, the Giants under caretaker coach Liam Finn gave that result a run for its money in their boilover 34-16 triumph.
And it happened just days after coach Luke Robinson was sacked.
The winless Giants led 16-0 just a minute before halftime after easily their best half of the season.
In fact had rookie Wigan fullback Noah Hodkinson not saved a couple of tries single-handedly, Huddersfield would have led by more. The margin stretched out to 26-4 which is where is was with 22 to go.
Wigan’s mini-comeback was killed off when stand-off Adam Clune finished off an 80 metre movement to dot down with 17 minutes left.
Two players on debut for the Giants, Connor Wrench and Douglas, were among the try scorers.
HUDDERSFIELD 34 (Gagai Zenon Evalds Douglas Wrench Clune tries Zenon 5 goals) beat WIGAN 16Â (Eckersley Farrimond Farrell tries Smith 2 goals) at Brick Community Stadium
Teams:
WIGAN: Noah Hodkinson; Zach Eckersley, Adam Keighran, Liam Farrell, Liam Marshall; Jack Farrimond, Harry Smith; Ethan Havard, Brad O’Neill, Luke Thompson, Junior Nsemba, Sam Walters, Kaide Ellis. Res: Patrick Mago, Oliver Partington, Sam Eseh, Taylor Kerr.
HUDDERSFIELD: Niall Evalds; Jacob Douglas, Jacog Gagai, Connor Wrench, Tanguy Zenon; Adam Clune, Tui Lolohea; Tristan Powell, Chris Patolo, George King, Zack Woolford, Fentin Rogers. Res: Taane Milne, Tom Burgess, Keiran Rush, George King.
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