HUDDERSFIELD GIANTS 0 ST HELENS 36
LORRAINE MARSDEN, Laund Hill, Sunday
ST HELENS put in a strong second-half performance to claim their first league win of the season at the expense of a Huddersfield side who remain hopeful of closing the gap between themselves and the top four in the league.
Last season’s beaten Grand Finalists were only 10-0 ahead at the break, but five more tries in the second period produced the sort of scoreline St Helens are more familiar with.
After a fairly equal opening quarter, Saints took the lead on 22 minutes when Vicky Whitfield scored with her first touch after coming on from the bench. Luci McColm added the first of her four goals for the afternoon.
Another substitute, Georgia Sutherland, was shown a yellow card on 25 minutes after being deemed to have led with the elbow, and rather than the Giants taking advantage of the visitors being a player down it was Saints that further extended their lead during the period.
Amy Hardcastle’s pass found Dani McGifford who powered over in the left corner. McColm couldn’t add the conversion out wide and the score stayed at 10-0 for the remainder of the half.
But Saints came out firing after the break and a great pass from debutant Hollie Bawden found Sutherland, who dived over the line.
Less than ten minutes later Bawden was involved again, this time being hit high in a tackle. From the resultant penalty, Chantelle Crowl powered her way over the line.
McColm added both conversions and then minutes later produced a great pass to Phoebe Hook, who found herself in plenty of space to put Saints 26-0 up.
With an hour gone, a superb pass from captain Jodie Cunningham, unusually playing in the halves, found Rachael Woosey who raced 20 metres to score in the corner.
McColm was unable to convert from outside once again, but she was on target with little over ten minutes to go after a pass from Katie Mottershead from dummy-half found Darcy Stott, who crashed over the line to round off the scoring for last season’s League Leaders’ Shield winners.
GIANTS: 1 Amelia Brown, 21 Faye Barraclough, 3 Lois Naidole, 4 Fran Copley, 5 Mollie Iceton, 16 Becky Grady, 7 Sam Hulme, 14 Gracie Hobbs, 9 Megan Preston, 10 Jess Harrap, 20 Amy Bennett, 25 Maddy Hutchison, 13 Bethan Oates. Subs (all used): 24 Freya Whitehead, 23 Grace Burnett, 22 Skye Jackson, 27 Millie Taylor.
SAINTS: 1 Beri Salihi, 2 Phoebe Hook, 23 Luci McColm, 4 Amy Hardcastle, 25 Dani McGifford, 6 Zoe Harris, 13 Jodie Cunningham, 16 Darcy Stott, 9 Katie Mottershead, 10 Chantelle Crowl, 29 Hollie Bawden, 12 Emily Rudge, 17 Caitlin Casey. Subs (all used): 8 Vicky Whitfield, 15 Georgia Sutherland, 18 Rachael Woosey, 24 Alyx Bridge.
Tries: Whitfield (22), McGifford (33), Sutherland (43), Crowl (52), Hook (57), Woosey (61), Stott (67); Goals: McColm 4/7
Sin bin: Sutherland (25) – leading with the elbow
SCORING SEQUENCE: 0-6, 0-10; 0-16, 0-22, 0-26, 0-30, 0-36
Half-time: 0-10
