Match report: Giants 6 - 23 St Helens

Feb 23 2009 by Chris Roberts, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

AFTER all the pre-season hype and the quality of the display to win at Catalans Dragons, there was a massive feeling of disappointment that victory couldn’t have been achieved against St Helens.

But even in defeat there was still an incredibly strong feeling that the Giants under new coach Nathan Brown are heading in the right direction.

It’s fair to say that a final scoreline of 23-6 was cruel in the extreme on the hosts, with Saints chief Mick Potter the first to acknowledge that fact.

And the new main man at Knowsley Road also admitted that if his side’s defence hadn’t been so strong, it could have been a completely different story.

He wasn’t wrong.

The Giants created a number of chances, particularly during a highly dominant second-half spell, but were continually met by an incredibly solid Saints’ wall.

Shaun Lunt, Simon Finnigan and Brett Hodgson were all held up over the tryline, while Martin Aspinwall was taken into touch by the corner flag as he attempted to touch the ball down.

Against almost any other side in the competition such pressure would surely have resulted in a win for the Giants – but not against an in-form Saints, who have now extended their club record run to 19 unbeaten in the regular rounds of Super League.

The Giants did manage to cross once during the contest when Luke Robinson’s perfectly-weighted kick to the corner was plucked out of the air by Paul Whatuira, who then showed great strength to touch the ball down despite a large number of bodies around him.