Huddersfield 40-18 Castleford

Danny Brough is out of England‘s International Origin match against the Exiles after spraining his ankle midway through the second half of this farcical Super League match.

Brough became England boss Steve McNamara’s second high-profile casualty of the weekend after James Roby’s fractured eye socket on Friday night.

Huddersfield boss Nathan Brown confirmed: “Danny’s going to be out for a reasonable amount of time.”

But this clash will be remembered as the night professional rugby league contrived to make itself a laughing stock in front of a national television audience.

Kick off had already been delayed 15 minutes due to technical issues with Sky’s broadcast equipment at the Shay when both teams emerged for the pre-match warm-up in almost identical white kits.

As the cock-up dawned on Huddersfield and Castleford officials they were forced to think of a desperate solution that involved the Tigers wearing a spare Halifax kit.

But those Halifax shirts were locked away in a kit room that only Fax employee Hilda Hardy had the keys for – and she wasn’t at the ground.

After a frantic phone call Mrs Hardy was persuaded to give up her Sunday afternoon gardening and bring the keys to the stadium.

Finally, at 6.10pm, Castleford emerged from the tunnel wearing Halifax’s blue and white colours – to general laughter and disbelief among the watching spectators and no doubt a slightly baffled TV audience.

Leroy Cudjoe‘s two tries helped Huddersfield establish an 18-6 half time lead, with Richie Owen cancelling out Cudjoe’s first before Eorl Crabtree bundled over to put the Giants back in front.

If the Tigers were still in it at that stage, their hopes didn’t last long.

Within four minutes of the restart, Huddersfield winger David Hodgson had latched on to Cudjoe’s long pass to collect the Giants’ fourth try and put them out of reach.

Lee Gilmour claimed Huddersfield’s fifth touchdown, spinning out of attempted tackles by Danny Orr and Joe Arundel after Luke Robinson had delayed his pass as long as possible to cause uncertainty in the Tigers’ line.

Orr made amends to some extent by crossing while Jermaine McGillvary completed 10 minutes in the sin bin, but the Giants’ winger scored within four minutes of his return to the action to keep Castleford at bay.

David Fa’alogo got the Giants’ final try, before Owen added a late consolation for the Tigers.