It's so easy in 13-try success

Feb 4 2002 By Chris Roberts, The Huddersfield Daily Examiner

Giants 68 - 6 Hunslet Hawks. WINS don't come any easier in the NFP than this stroll against struggling Hunslet Hawks.

The unbeaten Giants rattled up 13 tries without breaking sweat, had a further three harshly disallowed and bombed several other chances.

Furthermore, the leaders voluntarily played the last 12 minutes with just 12 men - and still scored two tries!

Coach Tony Smith later explained that the move had been made to see how his players handled being a man down, in case one of them were to be sin-binned or sent off further down the track.

But even if Smith had started with 12 players it's unlikely Hunslet would have held out their hosts.

The visitors offered enthusiasm and commitment, but very little else.

Apart from one bright spell right at the start and the 27th-minute try from Gareth Naylor, which was more down to woeful defence than skilful approach play, it was an embarrassingly one-sided contest.

Just imagine, then, what the score could have been if the Giants had been at full-strength and firing on all cylinders!

The fact that Smith rotated his squad and `rested' Steve McNamara and Chris Langley, who have both been solid as a rock this season, must surely have been a factor in what initially was an error-ridden Giants display.

Mis-controlled passes and knock-ons were far too frequent during a stuttering first quarter.

But once the team had started ticking over there was no stopping them, and they went on to score some superb tries.