Nightmare showing as Bulls' class tells

May 19 2003 By Chris Roberts, The Huddersfield Daily Examiner

Giants 6 - 52 Bulls. Men v boys as Giants fail to compete.

SO much for the Giants closing the gap between themselves and the major Super League powers!

The superb victory over reigning champions St Helens on March 30 is already a faded memory, having now been virtually erased by the traumatic events of yesterday afternoon.

This nightmare showing against the rampant Bulls cruelly underlined the gulf in class that still exists between those clubs competing at the top of Super League and those whose thoughts are concentrated on top-flight survival.

Quite simply, Bradford were too strong, too powerful, too quick and too clever for the outclassed Giants, whose sole focus was damage limitation.

In all honesty, Huddersfield were never really expected to win this contest, but they were expected to compete.

But, unfortunately, they failed just as demoralisingly in this second and far more achievable objective.

In the Giants' defence, their wafer-thin squad, which is already stretched to the limits, wasn't helped by the departure of scrum half Graham Holroyd midway through the half with a rib injury.

Yet even at that early stage of the contest, it was obvious this was a case of men against boys.

By the time Holroyd had managed to escape the on-field discomforts, the home side were 22-0 down and facing the prospect of a massive defeat.

And for that Huddersfield had only themselves to blame, with slack Giants play inviting the Bulls to make them suffer.