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

McNamara was unable to land the difficult conversion, but followed up with two penalties in the final six minutes to give his side a deserved 12-8 interval advantage.

The sides were level within three minutes of the restart as Waine Pryce finished off an excellent move with a try in the corner - and that was to prove a taste of Giants' frustrations to come.

Despite good pressure on the Castleford line, the visitors were unable to come up trumps and then just before the hour Gene was forced to leave the field with his facial injury.

With the Giants' major strike weapon off the field, Castleford took their chance and in the 61st minute had taken a lead they were never to lose.

A Healey kick to the corner looked innocuous enough, but inexplicably Marcus St Hilaire completely missed the ball in his attempt to kick it dead and a grateful Pryce eagerly pounced for the absolute gift of four points.

Six minutes later it was even worse as Gannon was red-carded for a high shot on Nathan Sykes and Craig Huby banged over the penalty.

The restart then went straight into touch and Huby followed up seconds later with another penalty.

Suddenly it was 20-12.

But then came the killer blow as O'Hare was outnumbered three to one in attempting to gather a high kick to the corner and Hudson sent Michael Eagar racing in for a converted try.

O'Hare was injured in the process and McNamara was taken off moments later before Crabtree crashed over for the consolation effort.