Game

Friday 27 Feb 2009

Kick Off 20:00

Huddersfield Giants pulled off their first league win at Bradford for 40 years to maintain their bright start under new coach Nathan Brown.

Full-back and skipper Brett Hodgson was the inspiration as the Giants followed up their shock opening 30-8 win over Catalans Dragons in Perpignan by claiming a second major scalp in three matches.

They were forced to withstand an early barrage from the Bulls as captain Paul Deacon kicked them into a 6-0 lead, but the Giants fought back to earn a 10-6 interval advantage thanks to tries from Martin Aspinwall and Jamahl Lolesi.

They then defended superbly in the face of more intense pressure in the second half to secure a famous win.

Bradford gave a debut to former Harlequins second-rower Michael Worrincy while prop Matt James was named on the bench after being recalled from his loan spell with Halifax to help offset the loss of back-row pair David Solomona and Jamie Langley.

With veteran Australian forwards Glen Morrison and Steve Menzies setting a superb lead, the Bradford pack quickly got on top of the visitors in an impressive opening.

Huddersfield were slow starters and found themselves trailing 6-0 after 19 minutes after Deacon kicked three penalty goals, two of them from 40 metres out.

But the Giants scored the game’s first try from their first meaningful attack after 22 minutes when second-rower Andy Raleigh squeezed out a pass for winger Aspinwall to touch down at the corner.

That gave Huddersfield just the encouragement they needed and substitutes David Faiumu, Lolesi and Danny Kirmond provided major impact from the bench.

And it was no surprise when the visitors took the lead a minute before the break when Lolesi raced onto a perfectly-judged grubber kick from Hodgson, who added the conversion.

Huddersfield suffered a blow two minutes into the second half when former Bradford forward Simon Finnigan hobbled off after being “crunched” by the impressive Sam Burgess.

Bradford then lost Deacon with a cut head - but not before he had restored his side’s lead by converting their first try of the match on 44 minutes.

Stand-off Ben Jeffries got Morrison into a gap and he had the strength to force his way over the line.

Deacon’s fourth goal from as many attempts made it 12-10 but the visitors struck back after 56 minutes when Hodgson got stand-off Kevin Brown striding through a hole in the Bulls defence and second-rower Stephen Wilde was in support to finish off.

Hodgson’s second conversion made it 16-12 as the game entered a thrilling final quarter dominated by the home side.

Menzies lost the ball over the line and Huddersfield scrum-half Luke Robinson made a timely interception from the second-rower to deny the Bulls as they piled ono the pressure.

Huddersfield’s defence was tested to the limit but they hung on to claim the spoils.