HUDDERSFIELD GIANTS 22 HULL FC 16
STEPHEN IBBETSON, Accu Stadium, Thursday

GEORGE FLANAGAN’S try twelve minutes from time gave Huddersfield a second win in succession as Jim Lenihan’s work at the Giants begins to bear fruit.

After a run of eight straight defeats under the coach, and twelve in total, was broken by victory at York, Huddersfield found a way to overcome Hull FC in a game which was as scrappy as expected between the bottom two.

There are now only two points between the sides and there is a very real risk of Hull FC – going through the motions under interim coach Andy Last, in contrast to Huddersfield’s quiet resurgence – finishing bottom of Super League for the first time after a seventh straight loss.

Buoyed by their morale-boosting success five days earlier, Huddersfield began strongly. Chris Patolo crashed over from Harry Rushton’s reverse pass inside six minutes, and Flanagan converted for a 6-0 lead.

But the Giants still looked defensively vulnerable, albeit Hull took their time to capitalise. Their first 20 minutes were summed up by Logan Moy making an excellent break, only for Davy Litten to then throw attacking ball into touch.

Joe Batchelor finally got them on the board soon after that, running a great line to go clean through off a disguised Jake Arthur pass, and Zak Hardaker kicked to level.

Moy was denied an unlikely try claim due to Ethan O’Neill’s knock-on, but O’Neill had an assist the following minute by linking Cade Cust’s dummy-half break straight off the bench with Litten’s finish in the corner, where Hardaker this time couldn’t convert.

Huddersfield had their own try appeal dismissed by the video referee seven minutes before half-time as Jacob Gagai reached a short Tui Lolohea kick only for Harvey Barron to force him to lose any control of the bouncing ball.

They had better fortune five minutes into the second half as another Lolohea grubber was missed by Sam Hewitt, only knocked down by Litten and finally touched down by Connor Wrench. Flanagan converted for the lead at 12-10.

However they immediately undid their good work by letting O’Neill slip through their weak defence and offload for Litten to score his second try and Hardaker his second goal.

The Giants were on the back foot for the next ten minutes yet escaped further damage, allowing them to square things up at 16-16 when Lolohea helped create an overload down the right for Flanagan, Wrench and finally young Lewis Jagger.

And with the wind suddenly in their sails, fullback Flanagan steamed clean through off a Lolohea pass and converted for a six-point lead with ten minutes remaining.

There was a late scare with two of them left as Batchelor slid over, but appeared to have the ball knocked away from him by Keiran Rush – in any case, the back-rower was offside in the build-up, and Huddersfield held on.

GAMESTAR: Harry Rushton again led impressively from the front.

GAMEBREAKER: The Lewis Jagger and George Flanagan tries came after a period of Hull pressure which was not capitalised upon.

HIGHLIGHT REEL: George Flanagan’s ran an excellent line to burst through for the winning try.

ALBERT GOLDTHORPE POINTS
3 pts Harry Rushton (Huddersfield)
2 pts Joe Batchelor (Hull FC)
1 pt George Flanagan (Huddersfield)

MATCHFACTS

GIANTS
21 George Flanagan
29 Tanguy Zenon
3 Jacob Gagai
34 Connor Wrench
42 Lewis Jagger
6 Tui Lolohea
18 Kieran Rush
14 Fenton Rogers
9 Zac Woolford
23 Chris Patolo
43 Zane Dunford
12 Sam Hewitt
13 Harry Rushton
Subs (all used)
17 Joe Greenwood
20 Mathieu Cozza
22 Jack Billington
40 Cole Geyer
18th man (not used)
16 George King
Also in 20-man squad
27 Marshall Land
– Matty Hanley

Tries: Patolo (6), Wrench (45), Jagger (62), Flanagan (68)
Goals: Flanagan 3/4

HULL FC
24 Logan Moy
2 Harvey Barron
4 Zak Hardaker
3 Davy Litten
19 Tom Briscoe
6 Jake Arthur
7 Aidan Sezer
26 Hugo Salabio
9 Amir Bourouh
10 Harvie Hill
11 Joe Batchelor
39 Ethan O’Neill
15 James Bell
Subs (all used)
14 Cade Cust
20 Yusuf Aydin
36 Lennon Clark
40 Max Wood
18th man (not used)
32 Lloyd Kemp
Also in 21-man squad
5 Lewis Martin
8 Herman Ese’ese
35 Ben Johnson

Tries: Batchelor (23), Litten (28, 49)
Goals: Hardaker 2/3

SCORING SEQUENCE: 6-0, 6-6, 6-10; 12-10, 12-16, 16-16, 22-16

Rugby Leaguer & League Express Men of the Match
Giants: Harry Rushton; Hull FC: Joe Batchelor

Penalty count: 6-3
Half-time: 6-10
Referee: James Vella
Attendance: 4,215