Great defence nils the Rams!

Jun 10 2002 By Chris Roberts, The Huddersfield Daily Examiner

But, in all honesty, Dewsbury never looked genuine contenders to inflict serious damage on the Huddersfield defence.

However, there were times when that accusation could also have been levelled at the Giants.

Without the strikepower of resting trio Eorl Crabtree, Stanley Gene and Chris Thorman the leaders looked flat on attack on numerous occasions.

Admittedly, the heavy rain that fell throughout the contest did make handling difficult.

But apart from a few individual sparks, the Giants made heavy weather of beating the opposition.

And their two first-half tries proved to be opportunist affairs.

Their first came after 10 minutes, with the opening having been carved out by Steve McNamara, whose perfectly-weighted kick to the corner caused Michael Wainwright to spill the ball out of play.

From the scrum, the ball was worked out to the right for Paul Reilly to collect.

As four Dewsbury defenders teamed up to force the full-back into touch, he somehow released the ball for Hefin O'Hare to collect and glide over for his 23rd try of the season.

McNamara failed with the touchline conversion and also saw his effort drift wide following try No2.