Chink in armour as Giants unable to retain Shield
IN 2013, Giants won the League Leaders Shield but the constant thorn in their side throughout the season, Warrington Wolves, denied them an appearance at Old Trafford in the Grand Final.
When 2014 rolled around, Giants were once again aiming for the heights of 2013 in a very hotly-contested top of the table.
Giants ultimately finished in third place, a solitary point behind St Helens who finished on top of the pile.
Saints won the League Leaders Shield in 2014 with just 38 points, four less than the haul Huddersfield achieved a year earlier, highlighting the shortening gap of quality between the top sides.
Giants started this season off poorly, picking up just six points in the first eight games of 2014, this only included two wins, with two draws making up the rest.
They even slipped out of the top eight, and thus the playoff positions, and it wasn’t until round 10 when Giants finally cemented their place in the top eight.
Then followed a sequence of five wins in a row, culminating in a 54-16 demolition of Bradford Bulls at the Etihad Stadium at Magic Weekend.
Despite defeat to St Helens a week later, Giants put in one of their most impressive performances on May 29, defeating eventual Grand-Finalists Wigan Warriors 31-22 in a thoroughly professional performance, in-front of the TV cameras.
“It was a win based on effort and attention,” was the verdict from Paul Anderson from that night.
However, inconsistency began to creep into the Huddersfield game and, unlike 2013 where they were largely ruthless in both attack and defence, Giants began to stutter.
A faultless June was followed up with two defeats at the beginning of July, which was itself followed up with four straight wins.
Maybe describing Giants during this period as ‘inconsistent’ is harsh, they did win seven in ten, whilst also battling out a 24-24 draw with
Warrington Wolves at the end of April.
However, these results should have set alarm bells off for Giants as the crunch-time of the season was approaching.
Wins against Hull and St Helens rounded off the regular season and a play-off with Wigan was on the horizon.
In their most pressurised match of the season, Giants crumbled. They were humiliated 57-4 by Wigan Warriors, a team they had beaten home and away during the regular season.
Much like the previous season, playoff rugby is clearly not suited to Giants and their season ended with a 18-16 defeat at home to Catalans Dragons.
The previous campaign in 2013 was going to be a difficult act to follow for Giants and despite finishing a very respectable third, they never threatened the upper echelons of the table, never sitting top of the pile and eventually falling in the play-offs.
When 2014 rolled around, Giants were aiming to replicate the heights of their previous season