Wigan claim their 20th Challenge Cup

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The Wigan Warriors have added yet another Challenge Cup trophy to their collection as goal kicking woes will haunt the Huddersfield Giants, following Wigan's dramatic 16-14 victory at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Things started messily for the cherry-red-and-whites as they were penalised for an obstruction inside two minutes when looking to shift the ball out of their own end. Huddersfield took the option of taking an easy two points to settle the nerves.

Despite dominating possession, Huddersfield couldn't make a dent in the Wigan defensive line despite the mountains of pressure they were putting on the Warriors. The pressure eventually became too much for Wigan and the play from Huddersfield was nothing short of perfection with swift hands and players in motion causing the Warriors defence to be in two minds and letting Ricky Leutele into space to score.

Although Huddersfield dominated possession, Wigan took advantage when they had the chance when Morgan Smithies was able to get his arm free to thrown a no look offload to a charging Harry Smith who had open space ahead of him to get through and score. Smith levelled the scores after converting his own try.

Huddersfield regained the lead with just over five minutes remaining in the second half, when Chris McQueen fooled defenders by throwing a dummy that forced two defenders to shoot to the outside man when instead the former Rabbitoh threw a dummy and then put on a step to get through to the line. Tui Lolohea missed a second conversion giving the Giants a 10-6 lead they took into the break.

The second half saw more dominance from Wigan and they opened the scoring just two minutes into the second half when the Huddersfield defence was caught rushing in which created space out wide for Bevan French to get into space down the sideline before finding Jai Field on the inside to score. Harry Smith's conversion put Wigan in front for the first time.

A poor day with the boot from Tui Lolohea hurt the Giants as they had a prime opportunity to level the scores but a poor penalty goal attempt kept the scores at 12-10 in favour of Wigan. Just shy of the hour mark, the Giants retook the lead when veteran Jermaine McGillvray was able to get his way to the line using his strength and ability to get down low and score in the corner. The fourth miss of the day from Lolohea kept the scores at 14-12.

The game went from end to end at different stages in the last twenty minutes although, Huddersfield in hindsight could have had a more attacking game plan as they looked mostly to not make any errors and finish their sets running it to the corner and making Wigan work it out from their own end.

Both the tactic and the poor goal kicking came back to haunt the Giants when in the final dying minutes of the game, Harry Smith got a kick away that he had tried twice before when the Huddersfield defence was rushed up. The first two occasions the kicks had eluded Liam Marshall, but the third was perfect right even up to the bounce of the ball as he charged over to the corner to score.

The conversion was waved away and Huddersfield needed a miracle inside the last minute of play to take victory. Unfortunately for their fans, the miracle didn't come and Wigan held onto a 16-14 victory but it was the goal kicking of Huddersfield that made the biggest difference.

Victory for Wigan gives them Challenge Cup title number 20 whilst Huddersfield's 70-year drought continues until at least the 2023 edition.

Wigan Warriors 16 Huddersfield Giants 14

Venue: Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, London
Crowd: 51628
Date: Saturday 28 May 3:00pm BST

Wigan Warriors (16)
Tries: Harry Smith, Jai Field, Liam Marshall
Goals: Harry Smith 2/3
Field Goals:

Huddersfield Giants (14)
Tries: Ricky Leutele, Chris McQueen, Jermaine McGillvray
Goals: Tui Lolohea 1/5