Match report: Giants 6 - 34 Leeds Rhinos

Apr 20 2009 by Chris Roberts, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

And that hope would have been increased had Stephen Wild been able to find his support after a great break three minutes later or if Kevin Brown’s tryscoring pass to David Hodgson not been ruled forward in the 50th minute.

Lawrence was also unlucky not to double his tally when he just failed to touch down after chasing a Brown grubber kick with 15 minutes remaining.

However, with the Giants continuing to make errors and conceding ‘soft’ penalties, Leeds were always going to make them pay.

And they did just that in the 70th minute when Matt Diskin was fortunate to reclaim the ball after his pass close to the Huddersfield line had been knocked down by Wild and he had the simple task of planting the ball down.

That wasn’t awarded until video referee Thierry Alibert had taken a close look at it.

However, the home side were not so lucky with a video ruling three minutes later when Brown’s ‘tryscoring’ pass to Paul Whatuira as adjudged to have gone forward as the half-back off-loaded under pressure.

It was clearly a shame for the Giants that the decision went against them, because the final margin of Leeds’ win was cruel in the extreme.

Yes, the Rhinos deserved their win and showed why they are the champions, but they were definitely not 28 points better!