Huddersfield Giants 10-18 St Helens: Player ratings and major talking points

A dogged performance from Huddersfield wasn’t enough to deny Champions St Helens a fourth win from four to start the season. It was a game dominated by brilliant defence and even though the Saints took the two points home, the Giants can take lots of positives from the game.

Major Talking Points:

1. Wow Welsby

Boy does Kristian Woolf have a selection headache to deal with when Tommy Makinson is fit again. For me, at the moment Jack Welsby can’t be dropped. The youngster simply has everything: awareness, smarts, skill and physicality. The way he plucked out the ball to create St Helens’ opening try was superb. He’s a class act and could be headed for the young player of the year award at this rate. Fellow youngster Lewis Dodd also deserves praise – he created the clinching try.

2. Impressive Huddersfield defence

This was a game dominated by defence. Yes, St Helens continue to be really impressive in defence only letting in five Super League tries so far this season. However, I think Huddersfield deserve praise for their defensive showing. In the first half they hung in there with some gutsy goal line defence. Meanwhile Luke Yates was outstanding smashing into opponents and racking up the tackles.

3. Woolf’s Saints or Jose’s Chelsea?

For those not familiar with the Premier League, Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea turned 1-0 wins into an artform. Once in front it was nearly impossible to peg them back and this St Helens side is very similar. They often score early and the way they defend makes it very hard to claw anything back from that point. They’ve not always been flash this season but they’re certainly dogged.

Player Ratings:

Huddersfield Giants

6 Lee Gaskell – 6
2 Jermaine McGillvary – 7
27 Sam Wood – 6
17 Chris McQueen – 7
5 Darnell McIntosh – 6
16 Jack Cogger – 8
7 Aidan Sezer – 6
18 Jack Ashworth – 6
19 James Cunningham – 6
22 James Gavet – 7
8 Luke Yates – 8
11 Kenny Edwards – 7
13 Josh Jones – 7

Substitutes

9 Adam O’Brien – 7
10 Michael Lawrence – 7
14 Matty English – 7
20 Oliver Wilson – 6

St Helens

1 Lachlan Coote – 6
3 Kevin Naiqama – 6
18 Jack Welsby – 8
4 Mark Percival – 7
5 Regan Grace – 8
6 Jonny Lomax – 8
7 Theo Fages – 7
8 Alex Walmsley – 7
9 James Roby – 8
15 Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook – 6
11 Joel Thompson – 7
12 James Bentley – 7
14 Sione Mata’utia – 7

Substitutes

16 Kyle Amor – 6
17 Agnatius Paasi – 7
21 Lewis Dodd – 7
23 Jake Wingfield – 7