THE CHALKBOARD: CASTLEFORD & HULL FC

In this week's Chalkboard, we look back to last time out against the Tigers, and ahead to tomorrow night's clash with Hull FC

By Sean Evans

Another week, another not so put together performance from the Giants, and in weeks gone by we have delved into the reasons why it isn’t quite coming together, whether it be the lack of control over Konrad Hurrell, or the lack of reviews on the offensive. Most of our reviews have had plenty comments about early errors and resilient defence, but as is with Rugby League, if you continue to give cheap ball away there is only so much defending will help you. 

Much like weeks gone by, Huddersfield’s resilience was obvious, other than an early James Clare try, the first half was full of spirited defending for both sides, but in the second half, one can only imagine the thoughts of head coach Simon Woolford, after individual battles were lost and mistakes lead to easy scores for the Tigers.

After scoring from a crash ball to make it 0-12, the Tigers put a seemingly average grubber through to try and post some more points, and they probably couldn’t believe their luck when another individual error cost the Giants.

The only try off the back off good shape was the try that all but confirmed the win for the away side, when the Giants defenders engaged with the running halfback, a good line run was almost certain to hit a hole in the Giants defence. With the pass being made and the gap being hit, the only thing left to do was to slam the ball down and end the game.

With little more talking points happening in the game, it is probably wiser we don’t dwell on the past and we move to the future, with crucial fixtures coming up, the first of which is away to Hull FC.

It is the words ‘hopes springs eternal’ that come to mind when looking at this fixture. With the stats saying it could go either way. Huddersfield’s bad form and lack of attacking consistency is there for all to see, but Hull’s lack of home form is equally as unimpressive, and it is that the Giants must use to their advantage if they are to challenge a team still pushing to make 2nd place and secure that all important home tie in week one of the playoffs.

If we rewind three rounds, to a match at the KCOM, Wigan had quite a lot of fortune shaping all there major attack away from the dangerous Ratu Naulago, and forcing Bureta Faraimo into the big defensive plays, on that occasion he struggled to deal with the pressure.

In this case, you can see Faraimo step up despite having a 10m buffer behind him and with Marc Sneyd there to cover his inside, allowing Marshall space to commit to the corner and he in turn scores, and what’s as interesting is that maybe he still shouldn’t. Marc Sneyd covering makes a tackle but can’t prevent the try, asking the question of how strong the left edge is under pressure. With McGillvary the one to face up against the pairing this week, we will look to pressure hard and give Jerry every chance to take on the big winger.

I hear you, that could be a one-off, and people have bad games this is true, so we will fast forward two weeks to Hull’s next home game against Salford, a game that was topsy turvy in terms of the attacking strategy from Salford, but what we did see in he first 40 minutes, is pressure applied to the right edge. 

Faraimo again slightly late, or slightly early but either way caught in no mans land which leaves Salford to have a punt at the line 10m out. Later on we see Faraimo push in and Salford score on the right edge again, but some questions need to be asked of his centre also as the space keeps appearing on the inside.

It does appear that i’m saying that this has happened all year, and it’s not the case, Faraimo is ever reliable, but if the weakness has slowly arisen recently, then it would do no harm to apply more pressure to the weakness to see if the crack appears once more, if not than other avenues will have to be tested.

What we can say is that Hull have size in large amounts and players like Faraimo, Naulago, Griffin… and many more, will prove a huge test for the Giants, so defensively they will have to be as solid in the middle as the are on the wings to stop this Hull side from scoring points. But in attack, an area of little reward recently for the Claret and Gold, this is one of very few areas available for potential scoring, and it will be interesting to see how they approach the game, knowing that a vital win will pull them away from the chasing pack and let all breathe a sigh of relief, albeit just for this weekend.