THE Giants were handed a lesson in what it takes to be Super League champions by an impressive Wigan Warriors.

The reigning competition kings may have been lacking several of their top-line stars.

But they were still able to dig incredibly deep to grind out a win that at times looked impossible.

For much of the contest, coach Nathan Brown’s men were on top.

Yet time and again they were denied by a Herculean Wigan defensive effort which made all the difference in the world.

Brown sprung another surprise by handing a full Giants’ Super League debut to 19-year-old centre Joe Wardle. The talented youngster had played a couple of top-flight games off the bench during his Bradford Bulls days, but the Galpharm chief had full confidence he would be up to the challenge of facing the Super League champions in front of the Sky TV cameras.

And the Scotland international certainly showed few nerves with a strong first-half showing.

There was clearly nothing he could do about Wigan’s opening try after just three minutes which was scored down the opposite side to where he was defending.

Thomas Leuluai’s ‘bomb’ on the sixth tackle was collected by Josh Charnley who immediately passed back inside for Sean O’Loughlin to score with ease.

Charnley converted, and the Giants had received an instant wake-up call.

But for the rest of the half it was the home side who posed the bigger threat.