Huddersfield Giants 36-10 Castleford Tigers: Highlights, player ratings and talking points

Huddersfield Giants took on Castleford Tigers at the John Smith’s Stadium live on Sky Sports.

It wasn’t the best of games with errors aplenty in the first-half, with a Greg Eden try the only points in the first 40 minutes for the visitors.

Huddersfield managed to claw their way back into proceedings with Olly Russell and Tui Lolohea dominating proceedings.

And, it was from those two that the Giants had their first points as a pinpoint Lolohea kick was dotted down by Russell despite the attentions of Danny Richardson.

It was Lolohea who fired the pass out for Louis Senior to dive in acrobatically at the corner for a fine finish as the Giants led 10-4 at the break.

The Tigers hit back just seven minutes into the second-half as Richardson fed Alex Mellor after the halfback had kicked a perfect 40/20.

However, two tries in two minutes from Huddersfield threatened to blow the game apart as Leroy Cudjoe took advantage of a dreadful Eden mistake to pick up a loose ball and dive over before Lolohea raced over after Toby King was sent through a huge gap.

Ricky Leutele got in on the act moments later, with Senior getting his second and Chris McQueen barging over to make it 36-10 with five tries in 18 minutes.

Highlights

Louis Senior’s flying finish in at the corner was one for the picture frame.

Talking points

1. Huddersfield played the conditions better

It was a dreadful night in terms of the weather, but it was the Giants that simply used the conditions to their advantage. Too many spilled balls from the Tigers hampered the visitors throughout the night and it simply wasn’t good enough from Lee Radford’s men.

2. Blistering Giants’ spell

It was 10-10 when Greg Eden dropped a ball on his line to allow Leroy Cudjoe to score, and, just 18 minutes later the Giants were up by 26 points at 36-10. It was a catastrophic error from the Castleford fullback and one which enabled the hosts to turn the screw.

3. Cas’ attack lacklustre

Too many times Castleford were caught in possession after a poor choice or a dreadful error. It looked as though the whole Castleford team were strangers who hadn’t just spent a week on the training field.

Player ratings

Huddersfield Giants

6 Tui Lolohea – 8
21 Leroy Cudjoe – 8
4 Ricky Leutele – 8
37 Toby King – 7
22 Louis Senior – 8
23 Olly Russell – 9
7 Theo Fages – 8
20 Oliver Wilson – 7
9 Danny Levi – 8
8 Chris Hill – 8
29 Sam Hewitt – 7
12 Chris McQueen – 9
13 Luke Yates – 8
Substitutes
14 Matty English – 7
15 Joe Greenwood – 7
19 Adam O’Brien – 6
26 Nathan Mason – 6
Also in 21-man squad
10 Michael Lawrence
17 Owen Trout
25 Innes Senior

Castleford Tigers

23 Greg Eden – 5
5 Bureta Faraimo – 6
21 Alex Sutcliffe – 5
17 Mahe Fonua – 6
2 Derrell Olpherts – 5
31 Gareth O’Brien – 6
7 Danny Richardson – 7
13 Joe Westerman – 6
9 Paul McShane – 6
10 George Lawler – 5
24 Cheyse Blair – 5
37 Alex Mellor – 7
11 Kenny Edwards – 5
Substitutes
3 Jordan Turner – 6
4 Jake Mamo – 6
22 Daniel Smith – 5
28 Brad Martin – 6
Also in 21-man squad
15 George Griffin
29 Sam Hall
32 Cain Robb
33 Jason Qareqare