Rugby

REPORT

Reigning Man of Steel Brett Hodgson produced a fine display to help Huddersfield Giants run out winners against the Bradford Bulls in their engage Super League XV season opener at the Galpharm Stadium.

A double from Leroy Cudjoe, both laid on by Hodgson, and a Shaun Lunt score saw the Giants race into a commanding 16-0 lead.

But tries from Stuart Reardon and Rikki Sheriffe before the interval halved the deficit.

A converted score from new Giants signing David Fa'alogo and penalty from Hodgson shortly after the interval ultimately proved enough although Reardon did grab his second try of the night for Bradford.

The Giants took the lead with eight minutes gone after several attacks down the Bulls left.

Fast hands saw the ball worked in the opposite direction with Luke Robinson coming up with a couple of nice plays before full-back Hodgson threw a great ball to Cudjoe for the simplest of tries.

Hodgson increased that lead to 6-0 with the conversion.

The second score came in the 7th minute following a try-saving tackle near the Bradford line by Steve Menzies on Kevin Brown.

Hodgson then came up with a beautifully weighted cross-field kick which allowed Cudjoe to pluck the ball out of the night sky and stroll over for his second.

Hodgson shanked his conversion across the face of the sticks this time but it did not matter as just six minutes later they crossed the whitewash again.

Brown took the line on and allowed the Giants fast ball, and it was Lunt who plunged his way over from dummy-half following some good attacking rugby.

Hodgson, presented with an easier conversion, made no mistake this time to extend his side's lead after 24 minutes.

Debutant Matt Orford helped Bradford pull one back three minutes before the interval.

The 31-year-old came up with a long pass to Chris Nero, who cleverly flicked the ball to eventual try scorer Reardon on the left wing.

Paul Sykes failed to tag on the extras but the visitors made further inroads when Sheriffe crossed for a second score with the last play of the first half.

Orford angled a kick out wide and Sykes, who caught the ball with his back to the defence, turned and floated a pass straight into the chest of Sheriffe who squeezed over in the corner.

Huddersfield's lead grew to 14 points again in the 45th minute following two good sets of six.

Some good pressure play paid off when Fa'alogo piled over for a converted score.

Thick fog began to set in and Robinson was sent to the sin bin with 10 second-half minutes gone for interfering with the play-the-ball. But Hodgson sent over a penalty as the Giants somehow managed to weather a Bradford onslaught.

The Giants looked fairly comfortable, whereas Bradford began to take more risks as they chased the game.

Huddersfield's Lee Gilmour was sin-binned with quarter of an hour remaining and Reardon forced his way over in the corner for his second. But Orford was unable to convert and the try proved little more than a consolation despite the Bulls showing good signs of promise late on.

POST-MATCH COMMENTS

Huddersfield coach Nathan Brown hailed his side's perfect start to the new Super League season after the game.

"I'm delighted to have started off with a win and I thought our effort, especially with 12 men for a lot of the game, was there for all to see," Brown said.

"We built last year on effort and commitment for each other and it was there again tonight."

The Australian was particularly pleased with the display of his compatriot Brett Hodgson - the reigning Man of Steel having set up two tries and kicked eight crucial points.

Brown added: "He played great and everybody knows what type of player he is and how important he is to the team."

"He does that on the back of some guys working really hard.

"We lost Keith Mason after one minute and our big blokes in the middle did a really great job."

"When you're playing big minutes and with 12 men for long periods of the game, our big blokes did a great job for us."

Brown did reveal that Mason was set for a spell on the sidelines, stating: "He has torn his pec (pectoral muscle) so he's going to be our for four to six weeks, possibly longer."

Bradford coach Steve McNamara was not so happy after seeing his new-look line-up, which featured four signings from Australia in Matt Orford, Brett Kearney, Heath L'Estrange and Glenn Hall, fall short in the final reckoning.

He was particularly disappointed with aspects of the Bulls' first-half display, as they left themselves too much to do against a strong Giants defence.

"I thought we probably missed an opportunity in some regards," he said.

"I thought Huddersfield were good in certain areas - defensively - and we had to work very hard to score some points there."

"After starting the game brightly you find yourself 16-0 down. There were some things in that first half that by our own admission were unacceptable."

"We were made to pay the price, we were chasing the game after that."

"We were looking for a bright start and it wasn't meant to be. We have got 26 more rounds of the competition to go and plenty of games left to go and win."