THE Giants predictably booked their place in the quarter-final of the Challenge Cup with a seven-try triumph over Rochdale.
But the Hornets claimed the moral victory with a gutsy display which should bode well for the rest of their Championship I campaign.
Despite languishing at the foot of the lowest tier of the professional rugby league ladder, coach Darren Shaw’s men made sure their Super League hosts knew they’d been in a game.
An initial Huddersfield onslaught suggested the tie might be a complete embarrassment, with the Giants racing into a 14-0 lead inside 12 minutes.
Despite the home side resting eight first-choice players and having two more on the injured list, the gulf in class in those opening exchanges was frightening.
But the more the contest progressed, the more the Hornets began to sting, culminating in a second-half display that made a mockery of the respective positions of the two teams in the game’s hierarchy.
After being 32-0 down after 44 minutes, the Lancastrians outscored the Yorkshiremen two tries to one to guarantee the Hornets left the field with heads held high.
For the Rochdale side, it was job well done as they avoided the humiliating defeat so many were predicted.
And, in a sense, it was also job well done for the Giants.
It may not have been slickest of performances from coach Nathan Brown’s men.
But the main objective of reaching the quarter-finals had been achieved, and a number of the club’s highly-promising youngsters were given a taste of life in the senior side – and acquitted themselves well.
Top of the list had to be hooker Keal Carlile, who had ton wait just two minutes to score his first senior try after coming on as a 18th-minute substitute!
It was also a special day for second-rower Larne Patrick, who scored his debut first-team try, while centre Josh Griffin also looked very impressive and almost grabbed a score after a 60m touchline run.
The tie also gave Tom Hemingway the chance to ease himself back into senior service after another injury-ruined pre-season. In fact, Hemingway had almost struck within five minutes, only to be denied by excellent last-ditch defence.
But a minute later, Luke Robinson broke through for the first time, showing superb pace to race over from 20m.
Leroy Cudjoe was unable to add the conversion, but made no mistake four minutes later as the Giants added try No2.
A Simon Finnigan drive took the ball to the line and the impressive Shaun Lunt was quickly in at acting half-back to plunge over from close range.
And almost straight from the restart Hemingway sent Patrick charging away to beat the cover on a thrilling 30m run to the corner.
At 14-0 there already looked to be no way back for the struggling Hornets.
But all credit to Rochdale for refusing to wave the white flag.
Had it not been for the ball bouncing the wrong way from attacking kicks, the visitors could have registered a couple of tries before the break.
As it was, their half-chances went begging, while the Giants added two further tries in the final 10 minutes before the break to make it 26-0.
Within two minutes of coming on for his debut, Carlile dived over from dummy half after Eorl Crabtree’s strong run had taken him to the line.
Then with four minutes remaining Patrick scooped up a loose ball inside his 20, made valuable ground and then fed the supporting Jamahl Lolesi on halfway to beat the cover and score under the posts.
It got even worse for the Hornets within four minutes of the restart when Finnigan burst through a gap and fed the ever-alert Lunt to finish off with ease for Cudjoe to again goal and make it 32-0.
At that stage, it simply seemed a case of ‘how many?’ But how wrong that assessment turned out to be!
In the 52nd minute Rochdale deservedly opened their account when Mick Fogerty collected a high Martin Ainscough kick to score a try, converted by Chris Giles.
Then nine minutes later Ainscough scored himself from a Brett Robinson grubber and it was 32-12.
Huddersfield – and Lunt in particular – did have the final say when he completed his hat trick after good work from Hemingway.
Yet at the final hooter, this was one of those occasions when almost everyone went home happy, with their respective missions accomplished.
