HUDDERSFIELD Giants Under 20s were put firmly in their place by impressive Wigan Warriors in what turned out to be a one-sided Valvoline Cup clash at Laund Hill.
The home side competed well for the opening half hour as they trailed just 12-10.
But when the visitors stepped up a gear – albeit aided by some cruel refereeing decisions by Paul Marklove – they took complete command and by the end of the contest a 54-10 scoreline summed up their all-round superiority.
It had looked pretty promising for the Giants early on when they took the lead after five minutes when Matty Dawson collected Danny Ansell’s kick to the corner.
And even when Dom Crosby gave Wigan the lead for the first time in the 18th minute and Ryan King crossed five minutes later, with Jamie Acton adding both conversions to extend the Warriors’ advantage, there was little to suggest what was to come later.
At that stage, rather than waving any white flag, Huddersfield looked more than up for the challenge and reduced the deficit on the half-hour mark when Elliot Hodgson, Jamie Cording and Ben Manning combined to send Sam Fletcher racing over.
Ansell converted and it was 10-2.
A great Hodgson break almost resulted in the Giants regaining the lead shortly after.
But when Acton raced away for a try he again goaled on the stroke of half-time, the Giants’ challenge was over.
In the second half, Wigan crossed at regular intervals, with King adding three more tries to take his tally to four and Acton, Sam Powell, Matty Russell and Chris Taylor also scoring with relative ease to complete a tough day at the office for the hosts.
