Huddersfield hammer sorry Saints
Huddersfield defied their lowly league position with a comprehensive 48-20 defeat of St Helens at Magic Weekend.
After a scoreless opening quarter, the Giants kicked on to register only their fourth win of the season as they look to make a charge towards the top eight with eight games of the regular season to play.
Magic Weekend’s top point scorer, Danny Brough, ran the game alongside Giants hooker Ryan Hinchcliffe as they denied a poor Saints outfit the chance to move level on 20 points with four other teams at the top of the Super League table.
The game was virtually over at 34-4 before Saints added a bit of respectability to the scoreline in the final quarter, without really threatening the comeback that many neutrals would have liked.
It took 22 minutes for the opening score, Jermaine McGillvary crossing in the same corner that he scored a dramatic late try in last season’s draw against Catalans Dragons at St James’ Park.
Within five minutes, the Giants had doubled their lead. A mistake by youngster Calvin Wellington, who knocked on off a sharp pass from a play the ball close to his own line, enabled Ukuma Ta’ai to pounce and momentum just about took him over the whitewash.
The Giants backed that up with a fine score, Jamie Ellis racing away to score in the left hand corner and all of a sudden Paul Anderson’s men were 16-0 up.
Saints managed to stop the rot before the break, Matty Dawson scoring their first try, Luke Walsh adding the extras for 16-6.
Keiron Cunnngham would have hoped for a positive response from his players, but he got the exact opposite as Huddersfield restored their 16 point advantage within a minute of the restart.
A sweeping move took them from left to right, despite a hint of a forward pass from Brough, and eventually it was McGillvary to score in the right for his second.
Sam Rapira got in on the act on 51 minutes to stretch the Giants to 28-6 in front, and virtually end the game as a contest.
Saints’ fortunes were perhaps best summed up by Huddersfield’s sixth try, a sloppy pass landing to the feet of Jake Connor who managed to swing a foot at it and kick the ball up in the air and over the defensive line, then knocking it back for Aaron Murphy to cross in the corner.
Two tries in five minutes, a first for the club for Jack Owens and a score from Theo Fages after Scott Grix had spilled a kick, got Saints within four scores, but a Brough penalty settled the game again.
The pick of Saints’ tries came through Adam Swift, but the Giants had the final say, adding further tries through the impressive Hinchcliffe and Kyle Wood late on.