Match Report: Huddersfield Giants 40 Harlequins 4

Jul 26 2010 by Chris Roberts, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

HUDDERSFIELD Giants took another huge step towards the Super League play-offs with a dominant destruction of the out-classed and out-muscled Harlequins.

This was far from the Giants at their best, but even without half-a-dozen senior players, they were still head and shoulders above the Londoners.

The Giants’ first-half performance, in particular, was far from impressive as they held an unconvincing 8-4 advantage.

But in the second half it was a totally different story as they crossed for six well-taken tries without a solitary Quins’ reply.

It was clear the visitors’ opening efforts to keep the Giants at bay had taken their toll, paving the way for coach Nathan Brown’s men to cruise victory.

And they wasted little time showing they’d got over the disappointment of the last-gasp defeat at Leeds Rhinos with a positive start to the contest.

The hosts were quickly into their stride and within three minutes had taken the lead.

From a Huddersfield scrum on the Quins’ 20, the ball was quickly worked to the right for Kevin Brown to feed Jermaine McGillvary to squeeze in at the corner, too wide out for Danny Brough to convert.

Unfortunately, however, they were unable to build on the dream start, with Harlequins regrouping to have a lively 10-minute spell.

That was promptly brought to a halt after 25 minutes when the Giants’ added their second try.

A smart David Faiumu offload to David Hodgson on halfway caught the visitors on the back foot, and from the next play Brown collected a loose ball 40m out and showed great pace and then good strength to touch down under heavy traffic in the corner for a second unconverted score.

But by half-time, the Londoners were right back in it.

Only a magnificent cover tackle from McGillvary denied Andy Ellis a try after 35 minutes before Quins forced the Giants to twice drop-out from under their own posts.

And that pressure eventually paid off on the stroke of half-time, albeit on the back of Brad Drew’s pass on halfway being intercepted by Luke Dorn to race away and reduce the deficit to 8-4, with Rob Purdham just failing to convert.

But whatever Brown said to his players at half-time certainly did the trick as they struck four times within 14 minutes of the restart.