Match report: Giants 6 - 34 Leeds Rhinos

Apr 20 2009 by Chris Roberts, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

IT just doesn’t seem to matter who’s the coach, what set of players take to the field and how well they’ve been playing.

It’s simply the case that whenever the Giants find themselves on the biggest of Super League stages, they suffer the big freeze.

And this weekend’s disappointing defeat, and performance, against Leeds Rhinos is just the latest in a depressingly long line of false dawns.

With the Giants entering this contest on the back of a magnificent six-game winning run, this seemed to be the ideal time to face a stuttering Leeds Rhinos side who had lost their last three.

But right from the kick-off, the alarm bells started ringing as the usually rock-solid and inspirational Brett Hodgson knocked-on the kick-off and Leeds took the lead through Brent Webb from the first set of six.

Immediately, the majority of Giants fans in the 11,593 Galpharm crowd were thinking: “Here we go again!”

And, unfortunately, as the game progressed, that opinion failed to change as mistakes continued to be made at crucial moments.

The Giants did work hard to get themselves deep into Leeds’ territory on numerous occasions throughout the opening period.

But every time they did, they either spilled possession or took the wrong option, and against a side like Leeds that’s fatal.

The more the mistakes came, the more the confidence of the champions grew, and the harder Huddersfield’s task became.