Wigan Warriors kicked off their Super League campaign with a solid win against the Catalans Dragons at the DW Stadium last week and they will be looking to back up that win when they head across the Pennines to face the Huddersfield Giants on Friday night.
The Giants were given a bit of a going over by St Helens in their opening match last week and having seen what happened to the Saints on Thursday night that form line hasn’t exactly been franked it would be fair to say.
Huddersfield have been guilty of slow starts to seasons in the past so they will be eager to get an early win under their belts and take the pressure off them but they’ll know it won’t be easy as Wigan have won the last five meetings between the two teams.
Last week’s defeat came at a cost for the Giants with Scott Grix picking up an injury which will rule him out for five months. Since then Danny Brough and Eorl Crabtree have picked up injuries and they are missing from this match too. Jamie Foster was signed in the week and he could make his debut here.
Wigan battled through the rotten conditions to beat the French side last week in what was a decent hit out for the opening game of the season and they will be looking for another such win here to take into next week’s World Club Challenge clash with them.
Shaun Wane has made one change to his squad for this match with Greg Burke coming in for Lee Mossop which suggests he was happy with the performance of his players. We know Wigan are strong in the pack but they looked strong in the back line too which will give them plenty of encouragement.
Initially I was struggling to pick which way I think this one would go. On the face of it a 10pt handicap looked quite a large one when you consider Wigan have the World Club Challenge next week but those Huddersfield injuries have made things a little easier, especially the one to Danny Brough.
Brough is often the lynchpin of this Giants side, he’s the one who leads them around the park and his kicking game gets them into scoring positions. He is also a very reliable goal kicker too so Huddersfield really have lost something with him not in the side.
Wigan are really strong in the halves now with the emergence of George Williams over the last 18 months and they now have such an advantage in that area in this match that actually I don’t think covering two scores is beyond them after all. I see Wigan keeping up their good record over Huddersfield here with a comfortable win.
Back Wigan (-10) to beat Huddersfield for a 4/10 stake at 1.91 with Bet365
