Huddersfield Giants claimed their first win of the Super League season as they beat Hull FC 12-10 at Magic Weekend.
Here’s our verdict.
Action
If the first day of Magic Weekend was short of talking points, the opening game of the second day was not, with two yellows and a red being shown in the first half. Liam Knight was the man sent off just before the interval and in truth, there was only one word for his lacklustre attempt to tackle Sam Hewitt: Dumb.
Just moments after Sam Eseh had seen yellow for a high shot on Matty English, Knight took out Hewitt on the halfway line with direct shoulder to head contact. He made no attempt to wrap and the referee had no choice to show the red. There’s been a lot of controversy about red cards in Super League of late, but Knight could have no complaints at all.
Huddersfield took the lead after what was a sloppy start in Newcastle with George Flanagan taking the two points after Jordan Rapana was penalised for offside.
Leroy Cudjoe extended their lead, too, putting the Giants eight points to the good. Hitting a gap in the Hull line, the loose-forward ran straight through Will Pryce’s meek attempt to tackle and touched down in front of the Hull fans.
Hull hit back as John Asiata managed to get his arm free and offload to Herman Ese’ese to touch down.
And, that’s when men started to be sent from the field, with Thomas Burgess being the first to be sin-binned for a late hit on Asiata, leaving the vice-captain needing a HIA. Sam Eseh joined him on the sideline after hitting Matty English high, before Knight was sent straight down the tunnel.
Jacob Gagai made the most of the numerical advantage to put the Giants even further ahead 15 minutes into the second half, receiving the ball in acres of space to touch down in the corner.
Davy Litten caught the kick off to lay the platform for an immediate response and it was the centre who found the offload for Lewis Martin to finish in the corner.
Hull huffed and puffed as the game wore on, but with a man down and misfiring spine, they couldn’t break down Huddersfield’s defensive line, who clung on for the two points.
Star man
George Flanagan. Produced a try saving tackle to deny Cade Cust at a key point of the game and handled everything Hull threw at him superbly.
Good day for
Luke Robinson. Finally he has his win. The Giants are a different team with Adam Clune in the side but they dug in deep and made sure of the result against the Black and Whites, who couldn’t find the answers.
Bad day for
Liam Knight. Sent off just before the break for direct shoulder to head contact with Sam Hewitt. There was no mitigation and he could have no complaints.
Bigger picture
It’s been a long time coming, but Huddersfield finally have their first points on the board and they deserved it. They were the better side in Newcastle and Hull only have themselves to blame.
The Black and Whites imploded at Magic Weekend and they couldn’t find the spark needed to do what was needed. Key players went missing, with Aidan Sezer and Will Pryce in particular failing to come up with the goods. Liam Knight was take a lot of flak, but Hull didn’t lose solely because of his ill-discipline.
Huddersfield Giants v Hull FC teams
Huddersfield Giants: George Flanagan; Adam Swift, Sam Halsall, Taane Milne, Jacob Gagai; Kieran Rush, Adam Clun; Oliver Wilson, Zac Woolford, Joe Greenwood; Jake Bibby, Sam Hewitt, Leroy Cudjoe.
Bench: Ashton Golding, Matty English, Jack Bibby, Tom Burgess
Hull FC: Will Pryce; Harvey Barron, Jordan Rapana, Davy Litten, Lewis Martin; Cade Cust, Aidan Sezer; Herman Ese’ese, Amir Bourouh, Liam Knight; Zak Hardaker, Ed Chamberlain; John Asiata.
Bench: Sam Eseh, Jack Ashworth, Yusuf Aydin, Tom Briscoe.
