Reilly hat-trick brings down Wigan

Huddersfield 24 Wigan 16

Huddersfield are making a habit of this. For the third time in three years they recorded a home win over Wigan and last night's was a dominant display that marked them out as genuine top-six contenders.

Huddersfield are making a habit of this. For the third time in three years they recorded a home win over Wigan and last night's was a dominant display that marked them out as genuine top-six contenders.

Paul Reilly's hat trick of well-taken tries made him the headline grabber, but the Giants were superior in all areas and it was only the tenacity of a youthful Wigan side that kept the score down and brought them some face-saving points in the final minutes.

Huddersfield applied most of the early pressure, their short kicking game pinning back a Wigan side which lost Terry Newton to illness on the way over the Pennines.

The workload caught up with them after 14 minutes when Stanley Gene unlocked the Wigan defence with an inside pass to Paul Reilly for the game's first try, converted by Michael De Vere, the Australian Test centre who had already announced his presence with some textbook tackling.

Gene was stopped just short as the Giants continued to hammer the Wigan line, and it was on a rare breakout of defence that the visitors almost hit back. Reilly dropped Kevin Brown's high kick, and from the scrum, Hefin O'Hare's last-ditch tackle prevented Brett Dallas scoring in the corner.

Dallas threatened a couple of long-range runs from deep in his own half, and Huddersfield hesitated in the face of a kick or two from Danny Orr, making them more dangerous than they should have been.

All the real incisiveness, however, was with the Giants, and two minutes before half-time they extended their lead thanks to the same combination that had brought them their first try.

One of the worries for this particular Huddersfield line-up was how they would manage without the kicking skills of Chris Thorman. Gene provided the answer with a perfectly measured low kick on the last tackle of a set, and Reilly came through with perfect timing from just on-side to touch down for his second try and give De Vere an easy conversion.

Wigan at last mounted some sustained pressure at the start of the second half, but their most promising opportunity was ruined by Orr passing straight into touch. Orr's next involvement went spectacularly wrong, when Brad Drew picked off his kick near the Huddersfield line. The Giants' hooker is not exactly built for speed, but he raced 70m for a stunning individual try conveniently under the sticks for De Vere to make it an 18-point lead.

Orr's second-half nightmare continued when a lost ball put the Giants on the attack again, but Gene's touchdown was disallowed. There were more points on the way, though, and Reilly completed his hat-trick with an explosive burst from dummy half.

A rare whitewash was looming for Wigan, but they avoided that indignity when Brown slipped the ball for Harrison Hansen to score.

Jerome Guisset brought Wigan further consolation with two tries in the last four minutes but there was no disguising that they had been well beaten.

* Two first-half tries from Luke Robinson and some heroic work in defence helped Salford secure a rare 16-14 win over Wakefield at The Willows.

Huddersfield: Reilly, O'Hare, Evans, De Vere, St Hilaire, Gene, March, Jackson, Drew, Gannon, Nero, Smith, Roarty. Substitutes used: Slicker, Crabtree, Grayshon, White.

Wigan: Radlinski, Dallas, Wild, Vaealiki, Aspinwall, Brown, Orr, Seuseu, Godwin, Guisset, Tickle, Hansen, Beswick. Substitutes used: Hargreaves, Allen, Colbon, Melling.

Referee: A Klein (London).