Round 18
Salford City Reds 10 l. Huddersfield Giants 34

2009 engage English Super League Index [Table] [Draw] [Player Stats] [Club Headlines]

Location: United Kingdom > National > First Grade Competition: engage English Super League

Huddersfield continue impressive away record
Sun June 28, 2009
Source: www.superleague.co.uk

Huddersfield Giants improved their impressive record on the road as their victory over Salford Reds at The Willows made it seven wins from nine.

The win also gave the Giants revenge for their defeat at the Galpharm Stadium earlier in the season.

Six tries in all, including a brace from Leroy Cudjoe, and five conversions from six attempts from Brett Hodgson gave Huddersfield the win. Salford could only manage two scores through Jordan Turner and John Wilshere.

Huddersfield were kept waiting on the pitch for well over five minutes before Salford finally emerged from the tunnel.

And it was the Giants, perhaps angered by the delay, who opened the scoring with only five minutes on the clock.

Hooker Scott Moore, on loan from St Helens, sent a high, hanging kick deep into the Reds' half.

And it was a bad error of judgement from Wilshere, who allowed the ball to bounce before collecting it, which saw the Reds full-back tackled over his own line.

From the resulting drop-out the hosts were unable to cope with the pressure and as Huddersfield worked the ball from right to left, Moore darted under the posts to touch down.

Hodgson made no mistake in giving his side a six-point lead. The advantage became 12 points two minutes later when the Giants full-back crossed for a try himself.

As the West Yorkshire club worked the ball through hands the ball went to ground and while the City Reds defence froze, Kevin Brown played to the whistle and raced past a static defensive line.

With Hodgson on his shoulder it never looked in doubt as the Giants scored a second.

Hodgson took his personal tally to eight points when he successfully slotted over the conversion in front of The Willows nightclub end.

The 22nd minute saw another score arrive for the away side.

Coming from deep in their own half, simple rugby and fast hands left the Salford defence scrambling over to the right.

But somehow, Michael Lawrence squeezed his way over in the corner after scrum-half Luke Robinson produced a fine offload to send his team-mate over. Hodgson successfully added the extras.

Salford gave themselves hope when Robbie Paul's introduction had the desired impact.

The Reds replacement instigated a clever move from the acting half-back area and did well to find Ian Sibbit wide left.

Sibbit cleverly diverted the ball to Reds centre Turner who crashed over in the corner. It was 6-18 when Wilshere sent the conversion between the posts from out wide.

Salford, who were maybe fortunate not to find themselves even further behind, repeated the trick again after the break as they made the visitors wait one more.

Salford's tackling improved in the early stages of the second period but a mixture of ill-discipline and handling errors meant Huddersfield's pressure was unrelenting.

A real wrestle between the two side's defences ensued but it was the away side who came out on top.

The game was wrapped up in the 64th minute when Salford again failed on a number of occasions to pick up possession.

The pace and handling of the Huddersfield attack did the decisive damage though and winger Cudjoe crossed the whitewash in the corner.

Hodgson made it four from four when his conversion from the right touchline hit the bar and dropped through the posts.

The Reds reached double figures with 11 minutes to play when Wilshere took his chance to slip through a rare gap in the Giants defence. But the try scorer missed the resulting conversion.

Cudjoe scored again four minutes from time and Stephen Wild crossed at the death but it added nothing to the game as the Giants had already run out clear winners.

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