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

There was a little light relief in the closing moments when Eorl Crabtree used all his strength to wrestle his way out of a clutch of Castleford defenders to plunge over for a 77th-minute try, converted by Jamie Bloem.

But that couldn't take away the obvious disappointment felt by the Giants after they had watched their earlier advantage slip away.

In a match that was far from being a classic, the Giants dug deep at the start of the contest and were a constant source of frustration to their opponents.

After conceding a sixth-minute penalty to Mitch Healey, the visitors began to rise to the challenge.

Within two minutes Bloem had levelled the scores with a penalty of his own and then kicked his side ahead with a second success after 13 minutes.

And it took the most fortunate of tries for the Tigers to regain the lead.

A kick ahead by Healey bounced the worst possible way for the desperately unlucky Paul Reilly and Damian Gibson was on hand to pounce and race over for a 26th-minute try, converted by Healey.

However, there was nothing fortunate about Huddersfield's immediate response.

The magnificent Ben Roarty made it all possible, pulling off a blockbusting tackle on Ryan Hudson to force the ball free.

That set the Giants up for an attack on the Tigers' line, and when McNamara kicked to the corner, Bloem was on hand to knock the ball back to Roarty who slung the ball out to O'Hare to dive in at the corner.