Match report: Giants 30 Wakefield 14

Jul 6 2009 by Peter Barrow, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

THE Giants’ Super League play-off aspirations took a huge leap forward as victory moved them into third place and opened up daylight between themselves and some of their major rivals.

Now officially ‘the best of the rest’ behind St Helens and Leeds in the table, this was a crucial win over a Wakefield side who could have closed the gap on the Giants had they won.

While pressure was on the Giants to show their play-off credentials and produce an improved display for their own fans after some disappointments at home, Wakefield knew they had to at least let the Giants know they had been in a game.

Blown away by the Giants at Belle Vue recently, Trinity could not afford a similar collapse and things did not look good for them as Huddersfield made a storming start.

It took the Giants just three minutes to cross the Trinity line. With Brett Hodgson having taken the ball to a yard out, Scott Moore burrowed over directly from acting half back.

Hodgson added the goal from the touchline and the Aussie full back was to be just as assured as he kicked four more goals from a variety of angles.

The competitive edge to the contest was emphasised early on as Keith Mason took a huge hit from the impressive Tevita Leo-Latu, but the prop responded by producing his own tooth-loosener on Tony Martin.

Giants increased their lead on 12 minutes in precisely the same style as they had opened the scoring. This time Luke Robinson took the ball to the line and the very sharp David Faiumu nipped over.

There was a danger for the visitors of a repeat of the previous meeting as full back Matt Blaymire had to hurriedly put a ball dead under pressure and then Eorl Crabtree lost control of the ball as pressure built on the Trinity line.