Agonising to the end

Aug 30 2003 By Chris Roberts, The Huddersfield Daily Examiner

Castleford Tigers 26 - 18 Huddersfield Giants. Gene's injury blow - O'Hare's howler and Gannon is red-carded

A NIGHTMARE final quarter shattered Huddersfield Giants' Super League play-off dream.

Everything was going according to plan for the first hour of last night's Giants' crunch clash at Castleford.

Although the visitors had conceded an early second-half try which enabled the Tigers to pull back to 12-12, Huddersfield appeared to be gaining the upper hand.

By the 56th minute they had twice forced Castleford to drop out from under their own posts and Paul Reilly had been held up over the line, giving the Giants a scrum deep inside their opponents' territory.

Huddersfield were definitely on top.

Yet despite the pressure, they were unable to find a way through the Tigers defence and the scene was set for a Huddersfield horror show of epic proportions.

The massive tale of woe included the gifting of one try, the cruel concession of another, the sending off of prop Jim Gannon and injuries suffered by Stanley Gene, Steve McNamara and Hefin O'Hare.

Fortunately, O'Hare was able to come back onto the field for the closing moments, but the outlook doesn't look quite so good for Gene and McNamara.

Gene, in particular, is a major concern and was due to be checked out today to see if he has suffered a fractured cheekbone following an accidental clash of heads.

And McNamara looked in all sorts of trouble after being helped off the field in some discomfort with a shoulder injury.