Huddersfield Giants suffered a pointless Easter programme with defeat at in-form Hull KR.
But such was the improvement in this performance compared with the effort they dished up in losing 18-12 at home to Salford on Good Friday, it’s certainly far from being doom and gloom.
On another day, the Giants could have been celebrating victory rather than having to brood on a 20-16 defeat.
This match really could have gone either way. And with the Rovers’ confidence sky high after wins over leaders St Helens and at city rivals Hull FC, there’s definitely no shame in losing by four points at the KC Lightstream Stadium.
In fact, if some of the 50-50 calls had gone their way and the bounce of the ball had been a little more favourable, then a return to winning ways would have been achieved.
The Giants couldn’t have made a worse start to the contest as they fell 4-0 behind after three minutes.
On Rovers’ first attacking set the visitors conceded a penalty and moments later the position was created for Darrell Goulding to stroll through a static defence with absolute ease.
But as the game progressed, Huddersfield warmed to the task and began to work and carve out the more promising openings.
Good defence prevented Jamie Ellis from touching down after a strong drive to the line, while Anthony Mullally spilled the ball when in a great position.
Then Ukuma Ta’ai’s long, wide pass shot into the stand when a more accurate pass to Aaron Murphy could have resulted in a genuine chance to race in at the corner.
So it was no great surprise when the Giants did finally take the lead on the half-hour when Danny Brough’s lovely reverse pass sent the rampaging Joe Wardle storming over.
Brough’s conversion made it 6-4, although the advantage lasted just three minutes.
Luke Robinson knocked-on the kick-off under his own posts and from the subsequent set, Terry Campese kicked high to the corner on the sixth tackle and former Huddersfield second-row forward Graeme Horne took full advantage to pounce and touch down.But with Josh Mantellato unable to convert for a second time, the Giants were still well within touching distance at 8-6 down.
And they were back in front within four minutes of the restart when Ta’ai made amends for a mixed first half by charging through one defender and just having enough weight to touch down on the line, despite the best efforts of full-back Kieran Dixon.
Brough again added the extras in front of the impressively vocal travelling support and the Huddersfield lead was four.
Once again, however, the Giants were guilty of making errors and handing the Robins possession to hit back seven minutes later when Albert Kelly crashed over, albeit after the hosts appeared to have knocked-on close to the line in the build-up.
But with Mantellato this time making no mistake with the conversion, the lead had changed hands for a fifth time.
At that stage it looked as if the rub of the green was going very much against the men in purple, and that was reinforced in the 62nd minute when Liam Salter’s pass went to ground forward and Mantellato picked up to touch down for a third unconverted try to make Rovers’ advantage six.
With 11 minutes remaining Campese attempted a drop goal to try and give his side a two-score lead, but saw the effort go narrowly wide.Mantellato did make the game safe with a 78th-minute penalty, although the Giants did have the final say when Murphy crossed in the corner.
