Same old story by sorry Giants

Mar 5 2001 By Chris Roberts, The Huddersfield Daily Examiner

Giants 10 - 34 Blue Sox. NEW team, new players and new coaching staff.

But it's the same old sorry story.

That about sums up a now almost customary start to a Super League season for the Giants.

Expectations at the start of a campaign have been high since Huddersfield were elevated into the top fight four years ago.

Yet when the big day finally arrives it almost inevitably leads to a feeling of massive anti-climax.

And that was exactly the case in the opening match of Super League VI.

The pre-season build-up to the campaign had offered genuine hope that this year could offer a far more encouraging start.

The squad being assembled by new coach Tony Smith does look far better equipped to compete effectively at this level and as an attacking force has a fair amount of potential.

Yet when it came to the crunch against Halifax Blue Sox, the Giants' weaknesses were cruelly exposed.

Defensively, they looked worryingly vulnerable when put under pressure, while on attack they struggled to find any real cohesion. There were simply fartoo many errors to be effective.

At the same time, however, it must be stressed that the refereeing of Robert Connolly didn't help the cause.

If it's a case of 'same old story' with the standard of the Giants, it's also definitely a case of 'same old story' with the standard of the referees.

Quite simply, Connolly crucified the home side.

Debatable calls were significant in the scoring of tries one, two and four, while another controversial decision two minutes before the break could have had a massive bearing on the final scoreline.

Halifax second-rower Shayne McMenemy blatantly held back Paul Reilly as he followed up Ben Kusto's kick into the in-goal area.

Reilly would almost certainly have scored had he not been penalised, and a 'penalty try' would have been a fair assessment of the situation.

Instead, McMenemy 'escaped' with a sin-binning, and the Giants were denied in the cruellest of fashion and remained 18-6 behind.

To rub salt into the wound, Ben Kusto plunged over the tryline from the resulting tap penalty, only to be denied by a double movement.

That looked to be the correct decision on that occasion, but a similar judgement on Darren Turner nine minutes after the restart looked far more harsh.

Certainly a video referee would have been beneficial in this case, and could have made so much difference.

But, overall, it's debatable on this showing whether the Giants deserved anything from the contest anyway.

Halifax competed far more effectively as a unit, both in attack and defence, and never looked back after being handed a dream start.

Within two minutes they had taken the lead when Andew Dunemann's perfectly-weighted kick into the in-goal area was pounced on by McMenemy to score with ease.

Jamie Bloem added the conversion, although by the seventh minute that deficit had been cut as Steve McNamara landed a penalty.

But any thoughts of the Giants taking control were extinguished seven minutes later with Halifax's second try.

That fell to skipper Martin Moana, who surely couldn't believe his luck when he collected the ball 30 yards out and saw the defence open up in front of him.

Having scythed his way through, he rounded full-back Paul Reilly - undoubtedly one of his side's better performers - and charged in for another straight-forward six points.

But Huddersfield's response couldn't have been better.

Kusto's superb kick-off forced Halifax to drop-out from under their own posts to immediately put the home side on the attack.

First, Martin Gleeson made precious ground into Blue Sox territory, then Andrew Frew repeated the act to take play to the line.

On the next play the ball was whipped out to the left for Brandon Costin to crash over in the corner to score on his debut.

That should have inspired the Giants onto greater things, but instead they almost criminally let Halifax off the hook, 'gifting' them a third score.

Kusto's failure to find touch with a penalty from in front of his own sticks was the initial offence.

That enabled the Blue Sox to go straight back onto the attack and when Costin rushed out of defence in a bid to cut out Dunemann's pass, Damian Gibson had the simple task of strolling through the gap to score.

Matters failed to improve after the break and within three minutes of the restart the visitors had extended their lead when Jim Gannon collected Paul Davidson's one-handed pass to score.

This time Bloem failed with the conversion, but made no mistake the next time after Moana almost embarrassingly burst through heavy traffic to score.

At 28-6 the game was already lost, although no-one had told Chris Thorman.

The stand-off refused to wave the white flag and he combined with his teammates to create a gap and squeeze over.

McNamara failed to convert and then suffered the indignity of seeing his long pass intercepted by Adam Hughes who raced away to score the final try.

Huddersfield Giants Reilly, Frew, Gleeson, Costin, Cardoza; Thorman, Kusto (Moxon 55mins); Marshall (Turner 48mins), Rowley, Laughton (Molloy 23mins, Laughton 53mins, Molyneux 71mins), Lomax (Molyneux 30mins, Lomax 61mins), Atkins, McNamara.

Tries - Costin (18mins), Thorman (70mins).

Goals - McNamara 1 from 3.

Halifax Blue Sox - Cardiss (Donlan 71mins); Bloem, Gibson, Hughes, Marns; Dunemann, Clinch (Tickle 23mins, bb, rev 26mins); Goldspink (Davidson 28mins, Goldspink 58mins), Lawless, Gannon, Thackray, McMenemy, Moana (Tickle 74mins).

Tries - Moana (14mins & 64mins), McMenemy (2mins), Gibson (27mins), Gannon (43mins), Hughes (79mins).

Goals - Bloem 5 from 6.Sin-binning - McMenemy (38mins, professional foul).

Half-time - 6-18.

Referee - Robert Connolly (Wigan).

Attendance - 4,401.

Scrums won - Huddersfield 6, Halifax 9.

Penalties conceded - Huddersfield 9, Halifax 10.

Top Huddersfield tacklers - Atkins 36, Lomax 28, Rowley 27.