Dreadful in defeat

Apr 14 2001 By Chris Roberts, The Huddersfield Daily Examiner

Broncos 43 Giants 12: THANK goodness the Giants have only another 48 hours to dwell on this awful performance!

The Easter Monday McAlpine clash against Wakefield Trinity Wildcats gives Tony Smith's men an immediate opportunity to get all yesterday's nastiness out of their system.

But if they play like they did against the Broncos, forget it!

Apart from the second quarter of the contest when they recovered from 16-0 down after just 10 minutes to claw their way back to 18-12, the visitors were dreadful.

Balls were dropped at the worst possible time and crucial tackles were also missed, resulting in the inevitable outcome.

And so, unfortunately, for a second successive week, coach Smith's primary objective of seeing his side continue to show an improvement has fallen by the wayside.

Instead, the evidence of yesterday would appear they are going backwards.

Yet just as against Salford last Sunday, the Giants really have only themselves to blame.

Bad luck played its part in London's opening try when a kick downfield bounced perfectly for the Broncos and paved the way for Steele Retchless to plunge over from acting half-back for Tony Marti to add the first of his six successful goals of the contest.

But the manner at which tries two and three were conceded was totally demoralising.

The unfortunate Ben Cooper will probably have nightmares about this game for a long time to come after twice spilling the ball to gift the Broncos the easiest of scores.

The full-back's first fumble came within four minutes when he lost the ball in a two-man tackle attempting to run the ball clear of his own line and Jim Dymock took full advantage to touch down.

And before the Giants had recovered from the blow, London were slipping almost effortlessly out of tackles for Matt Toshack to extend the advantage to 16 points by the the 10th minute.

Could the visitors have made a worse start?

Thankfully, Huddersfield then began to buck up thir ideas and by the break there were genuine hopes that they could turn the game on its head and register that elusive first win of the campaign.

Brandon Costin came close in the 17th minute and three minutes later David Lomax went even closer still.

By the 26th minute, however, the pressure at last paid off.

Dale Laughton's burst to the line put the Broncos on the back foot and Graham Appo cleverly dummied his way over from acting half-back for Steve McNamara to add the conversion.

A break from deep on the half-hour mark from lively centre Dale Cardoza deserved greater reward.

But after Martin had slotted over a 35th-minute penalty, the Giants soon regained the intiative with a second try.

This time it was Lomax who was on hand to do the damage, running on to McNamara's long ball and striding over between the posts for a second converted Giants try. Huddersfield now had their tails up, striking a huge psychological blow just before the break.

But the tone for the second half was set immediately from the restart as the visitors conceded a penalty from the kick-off.

It was definitely a sign of unpleasant things to come.

In the 48th minute Cooper had made his second fatal mistake, failing to smoother an awkward kick-ahead from Denis Moran and being forced to look on helplessly as the ball squirmed away and into the arms of Nigel Roy to race in unopposed.

From then on, it was donwhill fast.

In the 52nd minute Michael Gillett cut through some awful defence to score between the posts and 11 minutes later Moran ran the ball on the last tackle and fed the supporting Jason Hetherington to finish off in exactly the same position.

Moran's drop goal with 12 minutes remaining further increased the advantage before Greg Fleming slipped through the markers to sprint clear.

That brought up the 40-mark and completed another miserable afternoon for the Giants.

And it was hardly a fitting way for Academy forward Eorl Crabtree to remember his debut.

He showed his true potential by proving more than a match for his experienced opponents.

It was just a shame some of his teammates were unable to follow his example.

London Broncos: Barnett; Roy, Martin, Fleming, Golden; Dymock (Gillett 61mins), Moran (Warton 68mins); Mestrov (Dooley 31mins), Hetherington (Gillett 48mins bb, rev 60mins), Cram, Millard (Clake 68mins), Toshack.

Tries: Rechless (2mins), Dymock (4mins), Toshack (10mins), Roy (48mins), Gillett (52mins), Hetherington (63mins), Fleming (78mis).

Goals: Martin 6 from 7.

Drop goal: Moran.

Huddersfield Giants: Cooper; Appo, Costin, Cardoza (Laughton 63mins, bb), Frew; Thorman, Kusto (Moxon (60mins); Molloy (Crabtree 18mins, McNamara 59mins, bb, rev 63mins), Rowley, Laughton (Molyneux 33mins, Molloy 70mins), Lomax, Atkins (Molyneux 77mins), McNamara (Marshall 45mins).

Tries: Appo (26mins), Lomax (39mins).

Goals: McNamara 2 from 2.

Half-time: 18-12.

Referee: Russell Smith (Castleford).

Attendance: 2,894.

Scrums won: London 4 Huddersfield 5.

Penalties conceded: London 13 Huddersfield 9.

Top Huddersfield tacklers: McNamara 29, Atkins 28, Rowley 27, Crabtree 23 in 58 minutes.