Point thrown away in top-flight classic

Aug 11 2003 By Chris Roberts, The Huddersfield Daily Examiner

Giants 30 - 30 Widnes. Patched-up side still push for top-six

But the second half proved a completely different story.

After Widnes had kept up the early rapid scoring rate with Devlin's second try within four minutes of the restart, defences began to get on top.

Last-ditch tackles denied both sides from adding to their tally during a compelling 20-minute period and in the 67th minute Gene's attempted drop goal was charged down as the Giants sought the luxury of a seven-point cushion.

But in the 69th came the final key moment.

Reilly, who had returned from injury in outstanding form, was unable to collect a towering kick from Jules O'Neill under immense pressure on his own 20.

From the resultant scrum, the ball was worked out for Jason Demetriou to cross in the corner and for the ice-cool O'Neill to add the goal.

O'Neill then saw two drop goal attempts fail before, on the final play of the game, White collected Mick Slicker's neat chip over and sped away before being hauled down by the defence.

It was an exciting finale to what had been a thrilling encounter.