HUDDERSFIELD Giants’ super season well and truly hit a low point with a sorry excuse of a performance against Salford City Reds at the Galpharm.
After doing so many great things to deservedly earn fourth spot in Super League, the Giants hit the self-destruct button to hand their lowly visitors the game on a plate.
Their performance was flat from start to finish, with the amount of errors they made making it almost impossible to mount a serious challenge.
And their grateful opponents just lapped it up!
While Huddersfield were disjointed and seemingly devoid of any ideas as soon as they got anywhere near the Reds’ tryline, Salford made the most of the limited chances that came their way – chances presented to them by their generous hosts.
The visitors’ first try came after the Giants had failed to find touch from a penalty, the second after the home side had been penalised in a promising position, the third from an intercept and the fourth from a scrum after a very straightforward knock-on.
On top of that, Salford also deserve credit for the way they played.
While Huddersfield made 17 errors, the City Reds made just five, and the defensive effort of coach Shaun McRae’s men was also of the highest order.
In fact, the way Salford played to earn only their fourth League victory of the season was so reminiscent of the way Nathan Brown’s side had started the season.
They worked incredibly hard for each other throughout, and tackled as if their lives depended on it.
And, clearly, if the Giants wish to come out of their mini slump sooner rather than later they need to get back to the values on show from the victors.
But, first of all, cutting out the errors has to be the No1 priority.
Within four minutes, Huddersfield were making costly schoolboy errors that played straight into their opponents’ hands.
Kevin Brown failed to find touch from a penalty, and within a couple of plays John Wilshere was plunging over in the corner to dish out the maximum punishment.
The full-back then added the touchline conversion, and the Giants had been given the wake-up call.
And by the 15th minute it looked as if they had heeded the warning as they struck back.
A high Luke Robinson ‘bomb’ on the sixth tackle failed to be dealt with by the defence and Jamahl Lolesi was on hand to feed Robinson to squeeze in at the corner.
Leroy Cudjoe was unable to add the extras.
But, at that stage, the general feeling was that the fourth-placed Giants had weathered the storm and would soon be putting the second-bottom City Reds firmly in their place.
That couldn’t have been more wide of the mark!
Rather than kicking on, the Giants continued to make mistakes with monotonous regularity.
Having said that, however, who knows what might have happened had winger Mark Henry not tracked back heroically to deny Paul Whatuira following a stunning length-of-the-field move in the 22nd minute?
Had Whatuira just made it a further couple of metres, the Giants would have had the lead, and the final outcome could have been completely different.
Instead, the defence came up trumps, a minute later the home side were penalised inside Salford territory and within a few plays Darrell Goulding was finishing off in the corner for Wilshere to convert and make it 12-4.
The Giants almost drew level in the 34th minute when Whatuira failed to hold David Faiumu’s pass in a strong position and Martin Aspinwall was denied a try on the half-time hooter by a forward pass.
Those late surges suggested the Giants may be in for a strong second-half performance, but this proved another false dawn on a day of total frustration.
Within nine minutes of the re-start, Wilshere had nudged Salford further ahead with a penalty before they struck a killer blow in the 54th minute, once again courtesy of their hosts.
With Huddersfield pressing deep inside Salford territory on the sixth tackle, Danny Kirmond sent out a speculative pass that was collected by Richie Myler, who outpaced the cover to raced in for a third converted try.
At 20-4, the game was slipping out of the Giants’ grasp.
And salt was rubbed into the wounds with two minutes remaining when David Hodgson knocked-on close to the line and, from the scrum, the ball was eventually worked to the left for Willie Talau to feed Henry to score.
A nightmare afternoon was complete!
