Huddersfield Giants are off the mark in Super League 2018.
After last week’s second-half ‘train crash’ at Hull, coach Rick Stone’s men got back on track with a deserved 20-6 triumph over Warrington Wolves to open their home campaign in the perfect fashion.
The driving rain and slippery conditions meant the contest was far from a classic.
But having collected their first two League points with a bit to spare - and minus several front-line players - this was a very satisfactory evening’s work.
Without the injured Jermaine McGillvary – he should be back for the next game at home to St Helens – and Leroy Cudjoe, Huddersfield were always going to lack a fair bit of strike out wide.
However, they did start promisingly to have a first sniff at the tryline.
However, on the visitors’ first attack, they broke from deep to create the position for Stefan Ratchford to kick to the corner for Tom Lineham to collect and slide over in the slippy conditions to take a fifth-minute lead.
To add to the home side’s woes Lee Gaskell was forced to retire to the blood bin a couple of minutes later.
Jordan Rankin almost scored in the 10th minute, but it was adjudged a colleague had been out of play as he touched the ball back in the in-goal area.
But there was no denying Dale Ferguson in the 14th minute as he crashed onto a short Danny Brough ball to score, with the scrum half then landing the conversion to take the Giants ahead.
Their tally was increased four minutes later when the ball was kept alive on the sixth tackle, forcing Jake Mamo to grubber ahead and for the Warrington defence to fail to clear their lines and Darnell McIntosh to take full advantage. It was 12-4 on the quarter mark.
Gaskell returned to the fray on the 20-minute, while the arrival of Sebastine Ikahihifo also provided a lift, although it was the Wolves who were the next to come closest to scoring as Lineham just failed to gather Kevin Brown’s chip to add his second. That brief spell of opposition pressure was quickly halted, however, as Brough banged over a 35th-minute penalty.
Mamo looked to have extended the advantage with a minute remaining, only for the match officials to rule it out for obstruction.
And on the stroke of half time, Bryson Goodwin slotted over his first goal at the second attempt to make it 14-6 at the break.
It was nip and tuck in the third quarter, with both sides struggling to carve out clear-cut openings, signalling a fraying of tempers.
Mike Cooper was then placed on report for kicking out in the tackle in the 62nd minute, and it seemed a case of who could keep their cool – and it looked like that would be the Giants, as a minute later Brough grubber-kicked to the corner and Jordan Turner pounced as the defence fumbled possession in the in-goal area.
Brough added the touchline conversion, and at 20-6 the home side had won.
Leeds Rhinos followed up their opening day 16-12 win at Warrington Wolves with a home 20-11 home win against Hull KR.
The Robins took the lead when Ryan Shaw went over in the corner and while he missed his goal attempt, he was on target after Adam Quinlan went over.
But the champions hit back with tries from Adam Cuthbertson and Jimmy Keinhorst and a Richie Myler goal to make it 10-10 at half-time.
Matters were so tight that Chris Atkin opted to take a drop goal early in the second half to put the Robins back in front.
Leeds regained the lead as Keinhorst cut through for his second try and Myler added the goal and then Keinhorst completed his hat trick as Leeds moved comfortably in front.
