Huddersfield RU 3

Birmingham and Solihull 53

(National II North)

IF THIS is a season that Huddersfield will not want to dwell on, then Saturday’s horror-show at Lockwood Park is certainly one they will want to forget in a hurry.

On the evidence of this performance, not only are they definitely down but they are also out, after allowing a very average side to blast them to the tune of 40 points in the last 20 minutes.

There was no indication of what was to come by half-time, when Huddersfield were still very much in the game at only 10-3 down.

And they still only trailed by 10 points on the hour having restricted the visitors to just one penalty try (which seemed overly harsh) and a couple of penalties from scrum-half Jack Jolly, while Huddersfield’s solitary score had come from a sixth-minute penalty from Luke Booth.

Birmingham had looked the livelier of the two sides in the opening period with right winger Alex O’Malley looking dangerous on a couple of runs, while Huddersfield’s best effort came from a strong drive by the forwards, only for winger Elliott Knight to spill a pass out on the wing.

Birmingham’s try came on 27 minutes, when they had pushed the home defence back to their own five-yard line, but the referee Gareth Holgrove decided Huddersfield had caused an infringement at the subsequent scrum (although it was difficult to see exactly what) and with almost indecent haste ran between the posts to give the visitors a penalty try.

A second penalty from Jolly early in the second half led the Midlanders to 13-3 and the signs were beginning to look ominous as Huddersfield began to get pushed around in the scrum, and out-challenged in the line-outs.

They were starting to live on scraps of possession, and when they did get the ball, the half-backs simply did not know what to do with it, and it was left to individual forays by props Lawrence Sanderson and Alex Battye, second row Gavin Rhodes and back rowers Gaz Lewis and Nick Sharpe to try and inject some go-forward.

Already missing injured full-back Tom Owen, the limping Booth had to be replaced on 55 minutes by young scrum half Josh Walker, with fly-half Jon Coles moving out to centre and Joel Hinchliffe taking over at No10.

With Field’s defence starting to tire, Birmingham full-back Oscar Heath suddenly found a gap to dart through by the posts for the first proper try of the game on the hour mark, and then the floodgates burst open.

Two minutes later Darren Forder romped in for the first of his two tries, Jolly converting both scores to extend the lead to 27-3.

Tries were now coming thick and fast as flanker Michael Stephens crossed the line on 67 minutes, quickly followed by fly-half Lee Chapman, who strode over for try No5 as Nick Sharpe found himself sin-binned.

By now there were gaping holes all over the park, and when Coles missed a tackle on Forder the flanker galloped away for his second try of the game, converted by Chapman.

Full-back Jack Moon did manage to save one certain try, back-tracking to deny his opposite number, but it only halted the rampage briefly, as Heath bagged his second at the end of the game to complete the humiliation.

Huddersfield still have seven League matches, and one Yorkshire Cup match to play, but now seems to be the time to start planning for life in National League III North.

Huddersfield: Moon, Knight, Clark, Booth, Scrimshaw; Hinchliffe, Coles; Sanderson, Murphy, Battye, N Rhodes, G Rhodes, Thornton, Lewis, Sharpe. Subs (all used): Walker, Stringwell, Iveson, Hyde, Birkhead.

Referee: Gareth Holgrove.

YMCA’s Yorkshire I match at Scarborough was postponed because of a waterlogged pitch.