Giants just blown away by Wolfpack

WOOLFORD’S MEN MADE TO PAY FOR WORST 80 MINUTES OF THE SEASON WITH CHALLENGE CUP EXIT

HUDDERSFIELD Giants’ Challenge Cup dreams are over at the first stage after a home defeat to Toronto Wolfpack.

A brace of tries from Ricky Leutele and three penalties from Gareth O’Brien secured Toronto’s first victory of 2020, even without their superstar Sonny Bill Williams – and dumped Simon Woolford’s men out of the competition.

The early moves were made by the Canadians and within three minutes, the visitors were ahead.

A promising start from Toronto saw them put a few moves together leading to Leutele crossing to give Wolfpack a deserved early lead, converted by O’Brien.

Toronto’s early kicks were causing havoc for Giants, with Darnell McIntosh having to deal with a couple of testing kicks by Josh McCrone.

The first 10 minutes belonged solely to the

visitors and when Leutele doubled his tally for the evening, Giants were in a spot of bother at the John Smith’s Stadium.

A simple grubber kick through the middle of the sticks was enough for the Toronto centre to pounce on and the Wolfpack’s lead was doubled following a simple conversion. When Huddersfield eventually tested the Toronto defence, they were their own worst enemies with a knock-on and then a forward pass halting two promising moves.

Despite shipping 66 points last week against Leeds Rhinos, the Toronto defence remained resolute for large parts of the first half and the Giants attack, often appearing to be lacking in creativity, struggled to break the visitors down.

They fell even further behind after an O’Brien penalty on 27 minutes, giving the visitors a healthy 14-point lead.

When McIntosh’s off-load found the hands of Chase Stanley with five minutes to go of the first half, it was clear Giants needed to hear the half-time hooter sooner rather than later.

And then, almost on cue, O’Brien smashed another penalty over the posts to give Toronto a 16-0 lead at the break.