Round 14: Huddersfield Giants v Bradford Bulls

Huddersfield Giants v Bradford Bulls
Friday 18th May, kick-off 8pm

http://forums.rleague.com/images/ava...ddersfield.gif V http://forums.rleague.com/images/ava...k/bradford.gif

Huddersfield Giants 18-man squad: Reilly, Aspinwall, Lolesi, Brown, Thorman, Paul, Crabtree, Drew, Skandalis, Nero, Raleigh, Wild, Jones, Jackson, Mason, Griffin, Hudson, Snitch.

Bradford Bulls 18-man squad: Crookes, Hawkyard, Vagana, James, I. Harris, McKenna, Halley, Lynch, Evans, B. Harris, Morrison, Solomona, Burgess, Henderson, Kopczak, Vainikolo, St Hilaire, McAvoy.

Referee: P Bentham

Huddersfield are unchanged and virtually at full strength as they seek a first-ever engage Super League win over Bradford Bulls.

Centre Shane Elford is their only injury absentee.

Stand-off Ritchie Hawkyard and centre Jason Crookes, who are both from Huddersfield, are poised to make their engage Super League debuts for injury-hit Bradford.

There are also places for fringe forwards Matt James and Craig Kopczak.

Marcus St Hilaire switches to full-back in place of Michael Platt and prop Joe Vagana is back after sitting out last week?s Challenge Cup win at Wakefield Trinity Wildcats.

bbc.co.uk

Quote:

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Huddersfield 36-12 Bradford


Huddersfield: (24) 36
Tries: Wild, Skandalis, Jones, Thorman 2, Brown
Goals: Thorman 6
Bradford: (0) 12
Tries: Vainikolo, B Harris
Goals: I Harris 2

Huddersfield ended their 35-year wait for a league victory over Bradford with a six-try win at the Galpharm Stadium.

The Giants laid the foundation with a superb first-half display, with Stephen Wild, John Skandalis, Chris Thorman and Stuart Jones all going over.

Lesley Vainikolo pulled a score back early in the second half for the Bulls.

But the Giants were not to be denied a famous win, with Kevin Brown going over and Thorman scoring his second try in addition to his six goals.

The win makes it nine successive victories for the Giants.

They could have gone behind after only 40 seconds when Bradford prop Andy Lynch went over from Ian Henderson's pass only for video referee Ben Thaler to disallow the score for a double movement.

Chasing their first win in 28 League encounters over the Bulls, going back to 1972, the Giants rallied and built up a 12-0 lead after the first quarter as the visitors struggled to get out of their own half in the blustery conditions.

The home side extended their lead six minutes before half-time through Jones before Thorman grabbed the first of his double.

Second rower David Solomona sent Vainikolo over for his 14th try of the season and the 144th of his Bradford career just after the break.

But the Gloucester-bound winger was hurt in a tackle shortly afterwards and limped off to be replaced by Dave Halley.

Brown slid through to extend the Giants advantage and Wild showed great determination by racing back to deny Halley what looked like a certain try.

Ben Harris grabbed a late consolation effort but Huddersfield had the final say when Ryan Hudson broke through and kicked ahead for Thorman to claim his second try of the match.

The Giants capped a superb night by kicking the conversion.



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Huddersfield coach Jon Sharp
"I thought it was our best performance for a whole host of reasons, not least because we came up against a really good team that were very motivated and proud of a record that has stood for over 20 years.

"It's been an issue for the people who have been at this club a while and I hope they enjoy a glass of red wine tonight and celebrate but for ourselves we were very much focused on what we needed to do.

"We played pretty good and looked like a team that is smooth and in a rich vein of form."


Bradford coach Steve McNamara:

"I though the effort was really good.

"We can certainly gain something out of this game.

"It was a strange first half. Huddersfield were running at 100% completion up to the last five minutes but we defended reasonably well. We got put under pressure and cracked a couple of times."

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Well done to Huddersfield it was about time they got the win over Bradford in the league. They seem to be on fire at the moment, Salford must be fearing next week. I expect Bradford to bounce back against Harlequins next sunday.

Thanks for posting these reviews Lee!