O'Hare hat trick vital difference!

Mar 4 2002 By Chris Roberts, The Huddersfield Daily Examiner

Giants 28 - 18 Oldham. THANK goodness for Hefin O'Hare!

For the second time this season, the explosive Welsh winger was celebrating a hat trick of tries.

But the importance of these two triple strikes could not have been greater.

While his first came exactly a month ago in the 68-6 stroll over Hunslet Hawks, his second was to prove the difference between victory and defeat against dogged and determined Oldham.

Had O'Hare not struck on three occasions in the opening 19 minutes to rocket the Giants into a 14-0 lead, it could have been a totally different ball game.

Those scores appeared to have laid a solid enough platform on which to go on and record another comfortable home success.

But on this occasion that simply didn't happen.

By the 49th minute the visitors were just two points adrift at 20-18 and looked more than capable of inflicting the first defeat of the season on the unbeaten NFP leaders.

For the first time this season, the Giants were being put under extreme pressure at the McAlpine Stadium - and they knew it!

Fortunately, however, the home side just had enough energy left in the tank to finish off their plucky opponents, who in contrast began to fade in the final 10 minutes.

Quite clearly, a combination of trying to claw back that early 14-point deficit, courtesy of O'Hare, and having to soak up almost relentless pressure by the Giants eventually took its toll.

But Oldham definitely deserve credit for the way they played.

Their defence, in particular, was outstanding and on numerous occasions it came to their rescue to save certain tries.