Huddersfield Giants 8, St Helens 50

Jul 8 2004 By The Huddersfield Daily Examiner

OUTCLASSED Huddersfield Giants felt a big St Helens backlash to crash to their biggest Super League defeat of the season.

Five days after suffering a shock 41-22 defeat at Wakefield, Saints responded in typical Saints style to floor the Giants with a dazzling power-packed display.

But while there was a great deal to admire in the St Helens performance, there was also a great deal of concern with the way the Giants fell apart.

Nothing but praise could be heaped on coach Jon Sharp's men for the way they competed in the opening half.

After a closely-fought 40 minutes they could count themselves desperately unlucky to be trailing 14-8, particularly with referee Ian Smith doing them few favours.

But what a pitiful difference in the second half!

From the moment Paul Wellens crossed for the third of the visitors' eight tries within two minutes of the restart, everything for Huddersfield went rapidly downhill.

Their cause wasn't helped just before the break when in-form Paul Reilly was forced to retire with a bloodied face.

And it got even worse when replacement full-back Stuart Donlan, who had another superb all-round game, also had to leave the field with a bang in the 56th minute.

With two of the Giants' most effective players nursing knocks and Sharp having to field a relatively inexperienced bench, the writing was on the wall.