Generous Giants throw it away!

May 26 2003 By Chris Roberts, The Huddersfield Daily Examiner

Vikings 42 - 30 Giants. Crucial errors prove the downfall

Widnes made a meal of gathering the kick-off following Hughes' try and were forced to drop-out.

And within two plays, the ball was whipped across the line for Bailey to feed Marcus St Hilaire for a simple four-pointer in the corner, too far out for Costin to add the conversion in the absence of the resting McNamara.

Four minutes later the Giants were over again as Gene's clever reverse kick enabled Reilly to run through and score with ease.

Costin's goal made it 18-12.

By half-time the sides were all square as Daniel Frame crashed out of some suspect tackles to score, and the game was perfectly poised.

Ten minutes of intense midfield action at the start of the second half underlined the evenness of the sides - until the Giants capitalised on a major slice of good fortune.

With Widnes pressing on the Huddersfield line, Sheridan put in a grubber kick on the last tackle.

That ricocheted off Costin and the stand-off twice hacked the ball ahead before picking up and sliding out of Frame's despairing tackle to score under the posts.

Jamie Bloem added the extras, and a new six-point lead was created.

Almost predictably, given this Super League roller-coaster ride, Widnes had hit back by the 58th minute, with Andy Hay putting Hughes over. 24-24.