NINETEEN unanswered points from Huddersfield Giants has left The Halliwell Jones Stadium stunned.

Tony Smith’s men seemed to have the better of the opening arm wrestle, including Richie Myler having a try ruled out for a knock-on.

They gave Giants’ forwards a grilling down the middle in the opening 20 minutes and it eventually paid dividends.

Matty Russell’s grubber kick forced a repeat set and on the last tackle Gareth O’Brien attacked the line from second receiver and managed to twist his way over.

He also landed the kick to make it 6-0 after 23 minutes.

Giants’ response was swift on the back of a penalty for interference.

Danny Brough’s grubber kick had the sting taken out of it by Michael Monaghan’s attempted pick-up but the ball fell kindly for Chris Bailey to flop on the ball ahead of Russell. Brough’s extras made it 6-6 after 27 minutes but that was just the prelude in a Giants purple patch.

A Trent Waterhouse knock-on deep inside his own territory and then Chris Hill’s charge-down on his own 10-metre line paved the way for powerful Ukuma Tai’ai to surge over from short range off Shaun Lunt’s pass.

Brough’s improvement took Huddersfield to 12-6 and Wolves continued to live dangerously, O’Brien rescuing a clearance over the dead-ball line as McGillvary chased his own dab ahead.

And after the drop-out a deflection gave Giants another six tackles and again they cashed in, Lunt wrestling his way out of Paul Wood’s grasp to touch down close enough to the sticks to give Brough another simple conversion attempt.

From that third try in nine minutes Wolves needed a response and a penalty for obstruction piggy-backed them to the other end but James Laithwaite could not take Micky Higham’s delayed pass cleanly and a chance went begging.

Rhys Evans escorted McGillvary into touch after Huddersfield worked another opening down the right as the first half entered its closing stages.

A clever kick ahead for Joel Monaghan bounced unkindly and a last set for Huddersfield in the first period ended with Lunt’s break working a position for Brough to land a 30-metre drop goal with 30 seconds left on the clock.

Wolves: Matty Russell; Gene Ormsby, Joel Monaghan, Ryan Atkins, Rhys Evans; Gareth O’Brien, Richie Myler; Chris Hill, Michael Monaghan, Ben Harrison, Ben Westwood, Trent Waterhouse, Simon Grix. Subs: Micky Higham, Paul Wood, James Laithwaite, Anthony England.

Giants: Scott Grix; Jermaine McGillvary, Leroy Cudjoe, Aaron Murphy, Jodie Broughton; Danny Brough, Luke Robinson; Eorl Crabtree, Shaun Lunt, Antonio Kaufusi, Larne Patrick, Michael Lawrence, Chris Bailey. Subs: Craig Kopczak, David Faiumu, Ukuma Ta’ai, Jacob Fairbank.

Referee: Ben Thaler