Giants savour victory at last

Jul 2 2001 By Chris Roberts, The Huddersfield Daily Examiner

Giants 38 - 22 Wildcats. VICTORY at last!

It's taken a long time to come and at one stage it looked as if it may never happen.

But after 16 failed attempts, Huddersfield Giants have won a game in Super League VI.

And the way in which it was achieved unquestionably added to this momentous occasion.

It was without doubt a victory the Giants thoroughly deserved as they scorched over for seven superb tries.

Apart from a few brief scares early in the contest, Huddersfield's bid to claim a first win of the campaign was never seriously under threat.

Besides some scintillating attacking plays, with the exciting Stanley Gene once again to the fore, the Giants looked generally solid on defence.

Okay, they did concede four tries, but Wakefield's first-half double was down to the excellent teamwork of Willie Poching and Brad Davis, while the other two came when the contest was over.

Yet in the10 minutes before the visitors' line was finally breached in the 70th minute by Neil Law, Huddersfield had been forced to soak up an incredible amount of pressure on their own line.

Full-back Paul Reilly, in particular, has to be commended for a magnificent tackle on powerful centre Justin Brooker on the tryline.

Reilly, however, also faces an anxious wait to see whether he has a case to answer after being placed on report for an alleged high tackle on Trinity stand-off Dane Dorahy during Wakefield's late charge.

Should Reilly suffer any further punishment it would take some of the gloss off what was an excellent Giants performance.

Having survived a third-minute scare when Ben Westwood knocked-on over the line after Andrew Frew had fumbled Dorahy's high kick, Huddersfield began to take control.

By the fifth minute, Paul Rowley had opened his side's account by jinking over from acting half-back from 10 yards out and former Trinity loose-forward Steve McNamara added the conversion.

Although Martin Pearson cut the deficit with a 10th-minute penalty, McNamara followed suit shortly after and was added a second conversion in the 18th minute to extend the lead to 14-2.

And it followed a score worthy of winning any game.

Ben Kusto's exquisite short reverse pass sent the Wakefield defence the wrong way and allowed Brandon Costin to go charging clear and show excellent pace to beat the cover to score.

Former Huddersfield scrum half Davis combined with Poching to grab Trinity's opening try in the 22nd minute, and Pearson added another penalty eight minutes later to edge the Wildcats a little closer.

But this was one occasion when the Giants were determined not to let a lead slip away.

With seven minutes of the half remaining, the impressive Reilly picked up a Dorahy kick and sliced through the Trinity defence before feeding David Atkins to make extra ground.

With the defence stretched, Gene moved quickly to acting half-back and fed Kusto who immediately found Frew to cross in the corner.

A 10-point cushion had again been secured.

Neil Law plunged over in the corner on the stroke of half-time to set up the prospect of a tense second-half scrap.

But fortunately for the Giants, that was never allowed to materialise.

Instead, the visitors took the next 20 minutes by storm to take themselves out of sight.

Within three minutes of the restart excellent work by substitute David Lomax to keep the ball alive in the tackle helped Kusto find Gene, who skipped through the cover for a excellent effort.

Then Lomax repeated exactly the same trick four minutes later to release Gene, who this time passed on to Costin to finish in style.

Mick Slicker was stretchered off after being knocked out in the 53rd minute - he has already made a full recovery - to briefly break the Giants' momentum.

But midway through the half Huddersfield were over again when Reilly came into the line to collect Costin's long pass and race over.

At 32-12 Wakefield were well out of contention, and even tough Neil Law grabbed a second and Waisale Sovatabua cut through to score in the final 10 minutes, they were only ever going to be consolation efforts.

And it was certainly fitting that Huddersfield should have had the final say with te last try.

A high Gene kick was fumbled under considerable pressure by Pearson, who was powerless to prevent Atkins picking up and charging over for the easiest of scores under the posts.

McNamara added his fifth try from under the posts to crown an excellent afternoon against the club where he had suffered a nightmare time last season.

It was also a win that helped gain revenge for the meeting of the clubs earlier in the season, which the Giants dominated but failed to win.

This time there was no repeat.

Huddersfield's time had come, and not a moment too soon!

MATCH FACTS

Wakefield Trinity Wildcats - Pearson; N Law, Westwood, Brooker, Sovatabua; Dorhay (Ellis, 68mins), Davis (G Law, 56mins); O'Neill (Mason, 33mins), Rauter (Hudson, 75mins), Jackson (O'Neill, 58mins, Hudson (Field, 48mins), Poching, Price.

Tries - David (22mins), N Law 38 and 70mins), Sovatabua (77mins).

Goals - Pearson 3 from 6.

Huddersfield Giants - Reilly; Langley, Gene, Gleeson, Frew; Costin, Kusto; Stone (Marshall, 30mins, bb, rev 40mins, Marshall, 62mins, bb, rev 70mins), Rowley (Thorman, 36mins), Molloy (Lomax, 28mins), Atkins, Walker (Slicker, 48mins, Molloy, 53mins, Marshall, 76mins), McNamara (Marshall, 55mins, bb, rev 60mins).

Tries - Rowley (5mins), Costin (18 and 47mins), Frew (33mins), Gene (43mins), Reilly (60mins), Atkins (79mins).

Goals - McNamara 5 from 7, Costin 0 from 1.

On-report - Reilly (alleged high challenge).

Half-time - 12-18.

Referee - Richard Silverwood (Mirfield).

Attendance - 2,847.

Scrums won - Wakefield 9, Huddersfield 8.

Penalties conceded - Wakefield 5, Huddersfield 13.

Top Huddersield tacklers - Atkins 30, McNamara 28, Costin 20, Stone 18, Gene 18.