| Huddersfield Away |
After 5 Superleague defeats in a row the Tigers bounced back with a win against the Giants at The Galpharm. It wasn't so much 'Classy Cas' more 'Tenacious Tigers' as Terry Matterson's ground out a hard fought 13-6 victory with a late Rangi Chase drop goal securing the 2 league points. The Tigers were still without key men in Ryan Huson, Brent Sherwin and James Evans all through injury but welcomed back Ryan Boyle who was unavailable last week as well as Michael Shenton and Joe Westerman from International duty. For Huddersfield Liam Fulton returned from injury to take a place on the bench alongside ex-Tiger Danny Sculthorpe making his home debut. As they did last week at Saints, Cas got off to a flying start when full back Richard Owen sent Westerman through a hole in the Giants defence to feed Kirk Dixon. The winger stepped inside Brett Hodgson to score too wide out for him to convert his try. As both sides worked hard to gain the upper hand they exchanged goal line drop outs before a long pass from Brett Hodgson was intercepted by Ryan McGoldrick who raced 40 metres for a try under the posts. Dixon converted from bang in front and with only 18 minutes on the clock Cas had a 10-0 lead. Defences dominated proceedings throughout and when Luke Robinson made a rare break with only Owen to beat the Giants scrum half, with men in support, seemed to be caught in 2 minds and knocked on wasting a great chance to get back in the game. As half time approached Sculthorpe was penalised whilst in possession for not letting go of Boyle's shirt as the Cas forward tried to get away from the tackle. Dixon made the Giants pay as he kicked the penalty from 40 metres to take the score to 12-0 in the Tigers favour at the break. With the words of coach Nathan Brown ringing in their ears the Giants started the 2nd half brightly and when hooker Scott Moore offloaded to Kevin Brown referee Steve Ganson ruled a forward pass as Brown looked to be going through a gap in the Cas defence. The home side continued to to press and forced Cas to defend 20 tackles in their own 20 metre area as astute kicking from Brett Hodgson and Luke Robinson forced 3 goal line drop outs in as many minutes. Cas to their credit worked overtime with some ferocious tackling and some determined scrambling defence to repel the Giants out. A poor kick from Kirk Netherton was fielded by Leroy Cudjoe. The winger moved infield and after a quick play the ball, the ball was moved to the Giants left and Paul Whatuira found space to go clear but a fantastic cover tackle by Owen saw the Giants centre taken into touch and another opportunity went begging. A break from, the again outstanding, Chase gave the Tigers a rare attack and a high kick from McGoldrick saw David Hodgson tackled in goal but any hope of some sustained relief disappeared as Brett Ferres lost the ball on only the 2nd tackle. As Huddersfield forced their way back into the Cas' 20 metre area, a Brett Hodgson kick was played at by Westerman, giving the home side another set of 6. The pressure told as Stephen Wild sent Cudjoe in at the corner. Brett Hodgson converted with a magnificent effort from the touchline and with 15 minutes remaining Cas fans could have been forgiven for thinking that a repeat of the Challenge Cup game was on the cards. Not this week as the Tigers dug deep into their resources to grind out the result. A chip kick by McGoldrick saw Cudjoe force the ball dead then with only 3 minutes left Chase sealed the win with a sweetly struck drop goal. McGoldrick was awarded the Sky man of the match award for a discipline display where he worked hard in defence and prompted attacks and distributed well. Stuart Jones, Ferres, Westerman, Huby and Boyle got through a mountain of defence and any one of those could also have nicked the award. In the back line Dean Widders worked hard in defence whilst Chase and Owen were also outstanding. Cas are in front of the cameras again next week with a home game againt the Catalans Dragons and will be on a high after this confidence boosting win over the high flying Giants. Tigers: Owen, Dixon, Widders, Shenton, Wainwright, Faumuina, McGoldrick, Sargent, Chase, Huby, Ferres, Jones, Westerman. Subs: Boyle, Clayton, Netherton, Higgins Giants: B. Hodgson, Cudjoe, Lolesi, Whatuira, D. Hodgson, Brown, Robinson, Griffin, Moore, Mason, Wild, Finnegan, Crabtree. Subs: Fulton, Faiumu, Raleigh, Sculthorpe. Referee: Steve Ganson Attendance: 6010 Normytigers Man of the Match
1st Richard Owen 3 points 2nd Rangi Chase 2 points 3rd Joe Westerman 1 point |
