16 .............. GIANTS impressive Giants

A good period of Giants pressure was rewarded with a 57thminute Brough penalty to nudge his side ahead for a third time.

Yet such was the continuing see-saw nature of the contest that it was no real surprise that Wigan responded strongly, with magnificent Giants last-ditch defence required to keep out their hosts around the hour mark.

Unfortunately it was referee Chris Kendal who then enabled Wigan to keep up the pressure by sin-binning Leeming for a high shot in the 66th minute, after placing the visitors on a team warning 10 minutes earlier. Both calls seemed a tad harsh. There could, however, be no disputing the penalty awarded for holding down with five minutes remaining which enabled Escare to level the scores.

That set up a grandstand finale, with Brough just closed down to deny a drop-goal attempt in the 77th minute and instead feed Sam Rapira, who dropped the ball deep inside home territory.

Sam Powell then saw his attempted field goal drift well wide as the nervous tension heightened.

With time fast running out, Escare spilled the ball looking to break from deep to give the Giants a scrum in a promising position, but Brough was unable to find the target as the contest came to a thrilling end.

The Giants will feel that they should perhaps have come away with more!