After taking five steps forward the lethargic Huddersfield Giants took a huge step backwards, with a gut-churning 41-22 defeat at St Helens.
The victories over Salford, Wakefield, Castleford, London and Bradford suggested head coach Paul Anderson’s men may be about to hit their best Super League form at juts the right time.
However, those feelings of optimism were rocked to the core by the thoroughly unconvincing nature of this shoddy display.
With Saints going into the contest without nine senior players, this looked to be the ideal time to face them, particularly after their confidence-shattering Magic Weekend defeat to Warrington Wolves.
But with Huddersfield in generous mood defensively, that couldn’t have been further from the truth.
At the end of a dismal first half, the Giants were 22-6 behind, and deservedly so.
They looked more than half asleep in the opening 13 minutes as they found themselves 18-0 behind, with Aussie half-back Luke Walsh running rings round his opponents.
On St Helens’ first genuine attack, Walsh had created the initial break for Jon Wilkin before feeding Gary Wheeler to score and then add the extras to make it 6-0 after six minutes.
It was then 12-0 in the ninth minute when James Roby raced clear with embarrassing ease and found the supporting Lance Hohaia to finish off.
And it was 18-0 four minutes later when Walsh produced another piece of sublime skill to set up Paul Wellens.
Only then did the Giants finally awake from their slumber, and when Danny Brough fed Larne Patrick to crash over by the posts to reduce the gap to 12 points by the 18th minute it looked like the tide may be about to turn.
Unfortunately, as the visitors pressed hard for a second, former Giants winger Matty Dawson was able to intercept Leroy Cudjoe’s try-scoring pads to Ben Blackmore and raced away.
Although Cudjoe got back to stop Dawson, the damage was done and, with the Huddersfield defence stretched, Dawson made no mistake two plays later to score in the corner.
It could have been worse had video referee Phil Bentham not ruled out a second for Hohaia eight minutes later for obstruction.
But at 22-6 at the break, the Giants still had it all to do.
Howver, the hole deepened for the visitors three minutes after the restart when Walsh chipped through for Jon Wilkin to gather and score.
Walsh’s conversion made it 28-6 in favour of the home side.
Although they did find an instant response when Leroy Cudjoe gained possession from the restart and fed Ben Blackmore to score in the corner.
However, such was the ceaseless nature of Saints second half attacking that the Giants never put themselves in the frame to mount a meaningful fightback.
A second for Wheeler and a stroll over from Mose Masoe meant Saints had little trouble keeping the Giants at arms length.
As a result the scores from Brett Ferres and Blackmore’s second were of little consolation to the visitors.
It was then left to Walsh to rub salt in the wound by landing a 70th minutes drop goal to bring Huddersfield’s controversial Challenge Cup defeat at the hands of Saints fllooding back.
Leeds were 20-6 winners at home to Hull FC.
It proved a tight first half with just a Joel Moon try and Kevin Sinfield goal separating the teams at half-time as the Rhinos turned round 6-0 ahead.
But in the second half Leeds eased clear of their rivals with tries from Brad Singleton and Stevie Ward and Sinfield added three goals. Hull managed to get on the board with a Jamie Shaul try and Joe Westerman goal.
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