Jemaine McGillvary scored his second consecutive hat-trick as Huddersfield Giants beat Wakefield Trinity 40-28.
It took only five minutes for the Giants to strike. In-form standoff Lee Gaskell sent Jordan Turner through a hole and Turner found Jordan Rankin on his outside.
Soon after, Trinity were level. Ryan Hampshire’s kick to the corner was taken by Ben Jones-Bishop.
With Matty Ashurst off the field in the sin bin for ten minutes, the Giants took the lead through Alex Mellor. The back-row forward crashed onto Danny Brough’s pass. They even had time for Jermaine McGillvary to cross after an offload from Leroy Cudjoe.
With Ashurst now on the field, Trinity closed the gap through Bill Tupou to eight. But with half-time approaching, Gaskell passed wide for Darnell McIntosh to dive over in the corner and McGillvary scored his second of the game thanks to a good tip-on from Cudjoe.
The Giants continued where they left off. McGillvary went in for his hat-trick try for the second consecutive game just after half-time. Then, Ukuma Ta’ai barged his way over near the posts.
Trinity responded when they kept the ball alive: Jones-Bishop’s knock-down found Pauli Pauli who wasn’t going to be stopped from close range. Then Justin Horo crashed over to make the deficit 18 but Trinity could only muster a Tom Johnstone try in the last minute as the Giants held on for the win.
Giants: Rankin, McGillvary, Cudjoe, Turner, McIntosh, Gaskell, Brough, Clough, O’Brien, Lawrence, Mellor, Murphy, Ferguson; Interchanges: Hinchcliffe, Roberts, Ta’ai, English
Tries: Rankin, Mellor, McGillvary 3, McIntosh, Ta’ai; Goals: Brough 6
Trinity: Jowitt, Jones-Bishop, Lyne, Tupou, Johnstone, Miller, Hampshire, Hirst, Randell, Fifita, Batchelor, Ashurst, Horo; Interchanges: Wood, Pauli, Arona, Huby
Tries: Jones-Bishop, Tupou, Pauli, Horo, Johnstone; Goals: Hampshire 4
Sin bin: Ashurst (11) – dissent
Full match reports of all this weekend’s Super League games will feature in Monday’s League Express.
Photo credit: John Rushworth
