AFTER a great pre-season and superb opening-night victory at Widnes, the Giants came crashing back down to earth with a shattering 30-20 defeat to Salford Red Devils.
Hopes were incredibly high that coach Rick Stone’s men would signal the start of their John Smith’s Stadium Super League XXII campaign with an emphatic performance and victory.
There was enough to show that could be the case in the 12-0 trial triumph at Warrington and 28-16 victory over the Vikings last Friday.
However, that hoped-for scenario never materialised.
Instead, the home side fell flat on their faces, struggling to get out of second gear and failing to find the sort of attacking edge required to cut open an enthusiastic Salford rearguard.
In the end, it was a win the Red Devils deserved.
It was proving an incredibly frustrating night for the Giants, who worked themselves into some promising positions, only to undo it with poor end to sets.
It set the tone for much of the opening 40.
Huddersfield Giants Super League duo go on loan to Halifax and Sheffield Eagles
As a result, Huddersfield really only had themselves to blame for trailing 10-4 at the break.
Just like at Widnes the week before, the Giants started the game slowly and fell 2-0 behind to an eighth-minute Gareth O’Brien penalty.
But sparked by a Danny Brough 40-20, three minutes later, the hosts started to warm to their task.
Four minutes later, Salford were forced to drop-out from under their own posts, and four minutes after that the dangerous Sebastine Ikahihifo kept the ball alive close to the line and fed Ryan Hinchcliffe to send Jermaine McGillvary over in the corner with a long, looping pass.
Unfortunately, that was unable to ignite a Giants’ thrust up the gears, with the Red Devils taking just three minutes to hit back with a strong Junior Sa’u charge to the line.
And with Huddersfield creating more of the chances but failing to find a cutting edge, the visitors nudged 10-4 on the half-time hooter as O’Brien banged over his third goal.
The outlook appeared even bleaker within minutes of the restart when a Michael Dobson 40-20 paved the way for Robert Lui to send O’Brien over for a try he also converted to give Salford a two converted-try advantage.
Video referee Robert Hicks came to the Giants’ rescue moments later by ruling Greg Johnson was just in touch as he ‘scored’.
And that seemed to inject new life into the home side who immediately went upfield and created the platform for Alex
Mellor to collect and finish strongly out wide, with Brough adding the conversion from the touchline.
The debut try for Mellor must have been special, and his night got even more special two minutes later when he doubled his tally on the back of some electrifying approach play, in which a Lee Gaskell break was the major catalyst.
The impressive Kruise Leeming was also a key figure.
On this occasion, Brough failed to convert, but at 16-14, Huddersfield were right back in it - although no-one had told the visitors.
An amazing Leroy Cudjoe try saving tackle and Aaron Murphy track-back to deny Kris Welham proved Salford still had some devil left in them.
And that was underlined in the 64th minute when O’Brien crossed for his second and landed a fifth goal.
Ukuma Ta’ai kept Giants hopes alive by powering over with 10 minute remaining, with the video referee giving the score the nod with a hint of a double movement in the effort.
Brough’s conversion made it 22-20, and the game was again well and truly back in the balance.
Hinchcliffe looked to have set the Giants on the way to a fifth try in the 73rd minute, but his long potential try scoring pass went straight to the grateful Sa’u.
And a minute later, Josh Jones showed incredible strength to touch down by the posts under heavy traffic to effectively seal the contest.
O’Brien again converted and then landed a last-minute penalty to make it 22 points for the full-back on the night and rub salt in the Giants wounds in the process.
