Match report: Castleford Tigers 24 - 26 Huddersfield Giants

Mar 16 2009 by Chris Roberts, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

That caught the Castleford defence unawares and Luke Robinson and Kevin Brown linked superbly in a set-piece move to send second rower Jamahl Lolesi through a yawning gap.

Unshaken, the Tigers attacked with confidence gained from consecutive wins against Wigan Warriors, Salford City Reds and Catalans Dragons and struck back with two tries in a four-minute spell.

A break down the left by winger Richard Owen set up the position for former Giants centre James Evans to cross on the right, courtesy of Brent Sherwin’s long pass, and then prop Craig Huby took Ryan Hudson’s pass from dummy half to crash over by the posts.

Kirk Dixon added both conversions to put the home side 12-6 up.

But Huddersfield responded in the best possible fashion against the run of play in the 15th minute when left winger Hodgson easily won the race to Brown’s perfectly-weighted kick to the corner.

Castleford dominated the rest of the half, with Sherwin pulling the strings to telling effect, but they failed to add to their score as the Giants’ defence continued to work overtime.

Centre Michael Shenton got to the line but was turned on his back by defender Cudjoe and Stephen Wild managed to get his hand under the ball, while second rower Brett Ferres suffered the misfortune of dropping the ball over the line as Lawrence challenged.

The misses began to look costly when Brown and Brett Hodgson combined to get David Hodgson over for his second try five minutes before the break.

And the ex-Halifax, Wigan and Salford winger completed his hat trick eight minutes into the second half following superb work from Cudjoe.