GIANTS PUT SQUEEZE ON SLOW HULL
Hull K R 12
Huddersfield 26
TONY SMITH urged his Rovers players to wise up quickly to any spoiling tactics used by opponents.
Last year’s play-off semi-finalists struggled to get into the game for 60 minutes as the Giants stifled their chances of playing.
When they did come alive, Rovers looked dangerous and scored two tries to rattle the home side.
But they ran out of time in their late bid to snatch their first victory of the season and Smith admitted:
“It was frustrating.
“Teams are going to slow us down in any shape or form they can, within the rules, and we have got to stop that from happening. I understand why teams would want to slow us down and we’ve got to come up with better ways to combat that.
“We didn’t get going until the last 20 minutes and then we looked like us but we’ve got to learn to do it earlier.”
Huddersfield coach Ian Watson, whose side have won two from two, admitted he was wary of Rovers’ free-flowing tactics.
He said: “Everyone saw what they did last year but I thought our forward pack was very physical and was outstanding.
“It’s a great result for us. The players have backed each other to the hilt and worked really hard for each other. The amount of effort put into our goal line defence was great.”
Giants ran riot in the first hour when many Rovers players looked like they were still on the team bus. Forward Chris McQueen (above) drew first blood, grabbing the loose ball when a Theo Fages bomb was dropped.
Prop Luke Yates then crashed over under the posts and Josh Jones became the third forward to score with a neat show and go.
Oliver Russell converted two of them for a 16-0 half-time lead and early in the second half Huddersfield were in again when winger Jermaine McGillvary touched down.
Sub Korbin Sims injected fire into Rovers and the momentum changed. Brad Takairangi and Mike Lewis cut the lead to eight points, before McQueen settled the Giants nerves with his second in the last minute.