Liam Finn bemoans ‘scandalous’ Huddersfield Giants after being booed off

Huddersfield Giants’ interim head coach Liam Finn said his side deserved to be booed off at half-time after describing their first-half performance in defeat to St Helens as ‘scandalous’.

Taking charge for the final time before Jim Lenihan’s arrival next week, Finn saw the Giants peg their way back to a 26-18 defeat, having fallen 24-0 behind before the interval.

It was a woeful opening 40 from Huddersfield, with this defeat ensuring Lenihan will arrive with the club at the bottom of the Super League table after eleven rounds.

“A game of two halves. Actually, a game of one and three-quarters. One quarter and three quarters, wasn’t it?

“First 20 minutes, absolutely nowhere near. Miles off, unacceptable on any level. Never mind a Super League and professional level. Five errors, first 10 minutes, against any team, you get punished. We got punished, got what we deserved. Got booed off at half-time, and rightly so.

“People are paying their money to watch that. Scandalous, really, from us. So, we needed a reaction at half-time. We got one in the second half. Completed 15 sets out of the first 15 sets. Got ourselves back in the game.

“It’s not that complicated of a game, our game. It’s a tough game. It’s a really tough game, played by tough men. We probably dipped our toe in too much in the first half and got punished for it. In the second half, we went after it and nearly gave ourselves a chance at it.”

Finn frustrated with referee decisions

Finn admitted that the call to overturn a penalty against St Helens via the captain’s challenge, when Joe Shorrocks had been penalised for obstruction for running Niall Evalds off the ball, wasa call he couldn’t understand.

“If I’m honest, the captain’s challenge, the obstruction where we got the penalty, that one is bemusing. I think you can see from a mile off that he runs in a different line. I don’t know who runs that line, but I’d like to see him run after a few beers and see how straight he runs.

“There were a few contentious ones. Fenton can’t be verbalising his thoughts to the referee, that’s obviously a penalty, but he stood there with the ball locked up for five or six seconds, and his frustrations boil over. We left a few six against out there somewhere we’ll hopefully get back during the rest of the season.”

Debutants impress

Cole Geyer was arguably Huddersfield’s best player after completing a season-long loan move to the club, while Lee Kershaw and Lewis Jagger, a young academy graduate, also played their part.

“Cole was really good. I was trying to get him off for a rest to get Zac (Woolford) back on for the last 15-minute period but we ran out of middle forwards and unfortunately, I couldn’t get him back on. But he looked sharp out of dummy half and fronted up defensively. He created some half opportunities and made a break, so I was happy with him.

“Kersh did what he does, he challenges you physically, he carries and goes looking for work. He looked after Lewis Jagger and got him through the game, and I thought Lewis, given he can still play academy rugby, he fronted up really well and made some good decisions and showed he will be a good Super League player in the future.”