Battling Giants give grounds for optimism

Feb 24 2003 By Chris Roberts, The Huddersfield Daily Examiner

Giants 8 - 20 Warrington. THE newly-promoted Giants suffered a fifth opening Super League defeat on the trot.

Yet the general feeling around the stadium after their 20-8 defeat to the hungry Wolves was that there were some genuine grounds for optimism.

Once they had re-discovered their Super League feet following a very worrying opening 40 minutes, they settled competently to the cause.

The fact they were the better side after the break and scored two tries while keeping their own line intact will have encouraged Giants officials.

On the previous opening days of a Super League campaign, Huddersfield have been outplayed by Bradford Bulls, well beaten at London Broncos and suffered horrendous home reverses to Salford and Halifax.

So this battling opening-day display against a highly experienced Warrington side has to be seen as a step in the right direction.

And that's definitely the case when considering that referee Russell Smith twice reduced the Giants to 12 men through sin-binnings in the second half, with the decision to give Ben Cooper 10 minutes particularly cruel as he was only reacting to a punch from former teammate Graham Appo!

The question here, of course, is why wasn't Appo handed the same sentence?

But regardless of the referee's decisions, it really is this type of home fixture that the Giants need to win to avoid being involved in yet another nail-biting Super League relegation scrap.

With matches against Wigan, Leeds and St Helens to come in March and possible suspensions hanging over Darren Fleary and Stanley Gene after being placed on report for late challenges on Lee Briers, a tough opening time is now inevitable.