Thu 22 Apr: SL: Huddersfield Giants v St Helens KO 19:45 (Sky)

[Hela Wigmen]

2 minutes ago, Davo5 said:

Have we stopped giving 6 again for slowing down play the balls,the ruck speed in this game was painfully slow at times.

Suppose it’s referee’s discretion. Hicks allowed a painfully slow game so few were given. 

[Barry Badrinath]

Kenny Edwards getting rinsed by Jon Wells here

[Clogiron]

Better from the Giant's 2nd half, really need to step up their 1st half performance, the second was probably as good as they can perform with the personnel they have.

Saint's begining to look bored with winning, expecting to just go through the motions to gain victory against inferior opposition, it's a mindset that's hard to shake off without strong challenges from others which don't appear to be there again.

[Chris22]

A really dominant first half by us. Big try by Percival before HT. If we didn't get that, it would have been a very different game. Our challenge is to become more clinical when we're on top.

Huddersfield the better team in the second half. We only had one real chance in the second half and took it, which kept Huddersfield at a distance.

Thought Huddersfield put in their best performance of the season and pleased that we showed the patience needed to get the win.

[meast]

23 minutes ago, Man of Kent said:

Another defeat but I wonder if that’s a bit of a turning point for the Giants. Watson knows what he’s doing

It won't stop a section of our clueless, kneejerk mob from sharpening their axes though!

[meast]

23 minutes ago, Hela Wigmen said:

Nice to see we can be rubbish and still wind up everyone. That’s your back-to-back champions. 

First half was good, second half was tired and poor. We’d have probably lost that game under Holbrook though. 

Rubbish?

Bit disrespectful of the opponents?

I thought Saints were spot on in the first half, dominated every facet of the game but our excellent defence wouldn't let them walk in to rack up a cricket score, second half you withstood some pressure well and scored at the right time to kill the game.

St Helens were far from rubbish, but Huddersfield, despite being beaten showed up well, give some credit at least?

 

[daz39]

Much improved for us, we were never going to win that game but we were never gonna get stuffed as most people, especially the Sky lot suggested.

Not much in attack especially in the 1st half but superb defence that even the all star talents of Welsby and his lesser talked about team mates found difficult to break down at times, 2nd half we were much better but as usual decision making was off.

We'd probably be top of the league or thereabouts if we knew how to play 1st halves, we're gonna click soon and give someone a pasting i reckon.

Didn't think much to that Saints defence thouugh conceding 2 tries in 1 game :).

Onwards and hopefully upwards - in Watto we trust !!!

[Wood1]

The second half showed we (Giants) can go to St Helens in the cup and win. Despite injuries to Jake Wardle, Ricky Leutele  and Leroy the team battled hard and showed up for each other. McQueen was my man of the match.

[Gooleboy]

1 hour ago, Hela Wigmen said:

Suppose it’s referee’s discretion. Hicks allowed a painfully slow game so few were given. 

It wasn't a great spectacle tonight. Saints always seemed to have enough in the tank if needed and a spirited display from Huddersfield.

[Old Frightful]

8 hours ago, DavidM said:

Lovely set up play by the young kid there

You'll have to give us a bit more than that if you want us to know who you were talking about.

Could be a third of the players in SL according to the Sky lot.

[MZH]

9 hours ago, Clogiron said:

Saint's begining to look bored with winning, expecting to just go through the motions to gain victory against inferior opposition, it's a mindset that's hard to shake off without strong challenges from others which don't appear to be there again.

Their early season fixtures have been very favourable. Salford, Hull KR, Leeds Forwards XIII, Wakefield. Any of the other sides currently in the top 6 would have breezed through those fixtures too. Huddersfield seem to be still finding their feet under a new coach and yet again started poorly last night but they started to really test Saints as the game wore on.

Their next 2 league games should also be straightforward, but the following spell should really begin to test them when they play a run of Catalans (away), Hull, Leeds (hopefully close to full strength), Warrington, Hull KR, Castleford, Wigan.

If they just go through the motions they will pick up plenty of defeats in that run.

[Hela Wigmen]

3 minutes ago, MZH said:

Their early season fixtures have been very favourable. Salford, Hull KR, Leeds Forwards XIII, Wakefield. Any of the other sides currently in the top 6 would have breezed through those fixtures too. Huddersfield seem to be still finding their feet under a new coach and yet again started poorly last night but they started to really test Saints as the game wore on.

Their next 2 league games should also be straightforward, but the following spell should really begin to test them when they play a run of Catalans (away), Hull, Leeds (hopefully close to full strength), Warrington, Hull KR, Castleford, Wigan.

If they just go through the motions they will pick up plenty of defeats in that run.

Only probably Catalans look like scoring more than us by the end of round 4 and we’ve conceded an average of 5.5 points per game. 

Our defence is clearly the base for the rest of our game. Our attack is patient and structured, which can look boring, but it’s effective and gets results. FWIW, under Holbrook, I think we’d have lost that game last night. 

[Damien]

10 hours ago, Barry Badrinath said:

Kenny Edwards getting rinsed by Jon Wells here

I've just never seen it with Edwards. He always seems like a liability whenever I see him with mistakes and giving away penalties. 

[Saint Toppy]

11 hours ago, Man of Kent said:

Lewis Dodd. Quality. Interesting he’s at hooker. Is he going to play there or halfback long term?

He's an out & out half back but given Lomax & Fages are playing fairly well together at the moment its the only way he can give him game time. Wolfe is also a defence minded coach and expects his half back's to be able to defend just as well as some of the middles so giving Doddsy time in the middle will undoubtedly improve his defence ready for later years when he plays in the halves.

[Harry Stottle]

11 hours ago, Man of Kent said:

Another defeat but I wonder if that’s a bit of a turning point for the Giants. Watson knows what he’s doing

He knew what he was doing much better it seems with Paul Rowley as his assistant, was it just a coincidence that Salford improved immensely when Rowley arrived at the A.J. Bell, I don't think so.

 

[MZH]

1 hour ago, Hela Wigmen said:

Only probably Catalans look like scoring more than us by the end of round 4 and we’ve conceded an average of 5.5 points per game. 

Our defence is clearly the base for the rest of our game. Our attack is patient and structured, which can look boring, but it’s effective and gets results. FWIW, under Holbrook, I think we’d have lost that game last night. 

I was just responding to clogiron's post. Your early season fixtures have been as easy as they could have possibly been. We won't really know how good Saints are until they start playing some tougher opponents.

 

[Harry Stottle]

11 hours ago, meast said:

It won't stop a section of our clueless, kneejerk mob from sharpening their axes though!

See above meast, something missing in what for me is a better team on paper than Watson had at Salford, food foor thought.

[Harry Stottle]

10 hours ago, Wood1 said:

The second half showed we (Giants) can go to St Helens in the cup and win. Despite injuries to Jake Wardle, Ricky Leutele  and Leroy the team battled hard and showed up for each other. McQueen was my man of the match.

Yep, right side centre much improved and effective with Leroy being replaced, just my opinion. 

[Man of Kent]

19 minutes ago, Harry Stottle said:

He knew what he was doing much better it seems with Paul Rowley as his assistant, was it just a coincidence that Salford improved immensely when Rowley arrived at the A.J. Bell, I don't think so.

 

Nah. You can see Huddersfield building. They'll come good, I'm sure of it.

[bobbruce]

23 minutes ago, Harry Stottle said:

He knew what he was doing much better it seems with Paul Rowley as his assistant, was it just a coincidence that Salford improved immensely when Rowley arrived at the A.J. Bell, I don't think so.

 

Did they? are we now giving Rowley the credit for Salford getting to the 2019 grand final. Even though he was only appointed in August. 

[Barry Badrinath]

54 minutes ago, Damien said:

I've just never seen it with Edwards. He always seems like a liability whenever I see him with mistakes and giving away penalties. 

he's a ###### who seems more intent on starting agro rather than just concentrating on playing, much like say, michael korkidas was.

 

i was chunnering at him last week in the KR game, he got a couple of head knocks in quick succession, mikey lewis for kr was checking on him, when the game was stopped and he was swiping at his hand and scowling at him.

 

And of course, lets not forget him winding the catalans crowd up in 2019 during the fight in the stands.

[Saint Toppy]

I've gotta say I agree with one of Wilkin's comments post match. Watson's said in his post match interview that it was all about performance and he wasn't concerned about the result, where as Wilkin said he disagrees and it is about the results. Better to play poorly and keep winning than play well but lose every week.

With Hudds next 2 SL games being against top teams there's a good chance they'll be 6 and 0 and at that point they're in serious danger of having to focus on a relegation battle rather than a play-off place.

[Damien]

2 minutes ago, Saint Toppy said:

I've gotta say I agree with one of Wilkin's comments post match. Watson's said in his post match interview that it was all about performance and he wasn't concerned about the result, where as Wilkin said he disagrees and it is about the results. Better to play poorly and keep winning than play well but lose every week.

With Hudds next 2 SL games being against top teams there's a good chance they'll be 6 and 0 and at that point they're in serious danger of having to focus on a relegation battle rather than a play-off place.

I think you need to look as the context of the comments, namely that they have just lost against last season champions but with a much improved performance on what they have shown so far. I'm sure he would have much rather played **** and won but that didn't happen and he needs to take the positives from it, and there were a lot from a Huddersfield point of view. I have absolutely no issue with Watson's comments.

[Harry Stottle]

21 minutes ago, bobbruce said:

Did they? are we now giving Rowley the credit for Salford getting to the 2019 grand final. Even though he was only appointed in August. 

Yes I am Bob, the 'go forward' of Salford changed do much. 

I would not have Paul Rowley anywhere near a head coach's job but as an assistant offensive coach he truly has a worth to any team.

If your lot had him with Woolfe, you would be unstoppable.

[Saint Toppy]

2 minutes ago, Damien said:

I think you need to look as the context of the comments, namely that they have just lost against last season champions but with a much improved performance on what they have shown so far. I'm sure he would have much rather played **** and won but that didn't happen and he needs to take the positives from it, and there were a lot from a Huddersfield point of view. I have absolutely no issue with Watson's comments.

Except isn't just about playing well but losing against the champions as they've lost all their previous games as well