Game

Sunday 16 Aug 2009

Kick Off 19:00

REPORT

Chris Nero scored twice as the Bradford Bulls brought Carnegie Challenge Cup finalists Huddersfield Giants down to earth with an 18 point to 28 victory at the Galpharm Stadium in the engage Super League.

Nero's double against his former club came as the Bulls took charge of a tight contest at the Galpharm Stadium with a four-try burst in the first half.

Huddersfield, who celebrated reaching Wembley with a superb Cup semi-final win over St Helens last week, fought back through Scott Moore and Danny Kirmond late on but the Bulls held firm.

Michael Platt and Paul Sykes also touched down for the visitors while Paul Deacon kicked six goals.

All but four of the Bulls' points came in the first half in a scintillating spell of play that would grace the play-offs.

Their chances of reaching the top eight, however, remained slim while Huddersfield, after winning their six previous league games to sit third, can put the loss down to a Cup hangover.

They had seen little sign of that in the early stages. Indeed, Huddersfield made a perfect start and pieced together a move reminiscent of a couple from the semi-final to go ahead after two minutes.

Kevin Brown's bouncing kick was palmed back into play by David Hodgson and the ball was scooped up for Stephen Wild to find Brett Hodgson, who weaved his way over.

Brett Hodgson added the conversion and the Giants looked set to add to their lead as Jamahl Lolesi sent Luke Robinson clear but the scrum half was caught close to the line.

But Huddersfield's creativity was bettered by Bradford, who responded powerfully.

POST-MATCH COMMENTS

Huddersfield coach Nathan Brown felt his Challenge Cup finalists took their eye off the ball as they succumbed to Bradford in the engage Super League on Sunday night.

The defeat ended a seven-match winning run in all competitions and bore the hallmarks of a classic cup hangover.

Brown said: "The things that helped the Giants to Wembley and to sit in third place, we just clearly didn't have in the first half."

"We tried our best to guard against that attitude side of the game but effort in the first half clearly wasn't acceptable."

"We asked for a response in the second half and we got a good one, but you cannot give away big starts like that."

"Bradford played some good footy, they came up with some nice plays and scored some nice tries."

"You need to give them credit for that but I think we saw, when we muscled up and decided to put in the required effort, things fell in our favour."

It was play-off quality football from the Bulls but they still look unlikely to make the top eight.

"It is completely out of our hands, but we have just got to keep trying to win games," said coach Steve McNamara.

"But I'm really pleased for the group, I feel we are starting to get a little bit of the reward we've deserved throughout the season."

"It was a good performance from us, the first and second halves were different in terms of the quality shown, but we got the job done."

Huddersfield fought back through Scott Moore and Danny Kirmond but the damage was already done. The game did become scrappy in the second half and one of a number of controversial incidents saw Moore sin-binned and placed on report for a late tackle on Deacon.

Brown said: "If he (Deacon) wanted to he could have stayed down, so you've got to give him credit for getting straight up."

"That probably shows what was in the incident - not a great deal."

Huddersfield will assess the fitness of Stephen Wild, who left the field with a knee injury.