30 Aug 2019

THE LOWDOWN: GIANTS VS HULL FC

All the facts you need. All in one place.

The Brief

Friday night sees two sides compete with both sides fighting for different reasons towards the end of the season. Hull FC currently occupy the final playoff spot in 5th place with 30 points, so they will be hoping to end the season strongly to make the end of season playoffs. Meanwhile, we are still scrapping to secure our future in the Betfred Super League next season, a win this weekend could move us two points clear of the drop.

The Opposition

As previously said, tonight’s game is a crucial one for the black and whites in their push for the playoffs. The East Yorkshire outfit have won 15 of their 26 Betfred Super League games so far this campaign.

Their first fixture of the 2019 season was against local rivals, Hull KR, the Robins winning it 18-16. A second defeat followed, this time they were beaten 26-18 at home by the Castleford Tigers. Their fortune did change in the final week of February though, Marc Sneyd kicking the drop-goal in golden point overtime, to give them a 23-22 win at reigning champions, Wigan.

They opened March with consecutive wins to make it three on the bounce, a 28-8 win at the John Smith’s Stadium, was followed by a 34-10 win over the Leeds Rhinos. However, Wakefield Trinity then won 32-12 at the KCOM Stadium, before they beat newly promoted London Broncos 28-24. It was a forgetful end to March for the black and whites though, as they were beaten 63-12 at home by the Warrington Wolves.

Five wins out of six followed in April. A 23-16 win at Salford opened the month, before they beat the Catalans Dragons in golden point in Perpignan, 31-30. They then avenged their defeat at local rivals Hull KR earlier on in the season, by beating them 56-12 on Good Friday. Their only negative for the month was the following game, as league leaders, St Helens beat them 62-16 at the Totally Wicked Stadium. Hull then avenged another defeat from earlier on in the season, as they beat Wakefield Trinity 30-14 at the KCOM.

The following weekend, the Catalans Dragons won 37-6 in East Yorkshire, before the black and whites progressed with the Coral Challenge Cup, as they beat Castleford, 28-12. An impressive 19-12 win at Warrington followed. We then beat them 55-2 at Anfield, in what was arguably our best performance of the season so far. They then once again progressed in the Coral Challenge Cup, beating the Catalans Dragons 51-8.

A near perfect June followed. They opened the month with a 35-32 win over the Salford Red Devils. They followed that with a 31-18 win at Castleford. They continued their good form with a 50-10 win over the Catalans Dragons in Perpignan. They did, however, lost 18-10 at Hull KR to end the month.

League leaders, St Helens, then won 40-12 at the KCOM, before they beat the London Broncos 35-22.

Form

Both sides have struggled for form in recent weeks, with Hull FC winning two of their last five, whilst we have only won once.

We were beaten 32-28 by the Catalans Dragons in the middle of July, whilst the black and whites beat the Leeds Rhinos, 26-24.

The next set of games saw the black and whites compete in the Challenge Cup semi-final, but they were beaten 22-14 by the Warrington Wolves, the eventual winners of the competition. Our fourth from last game saw us record our only win in the last five, a massive 18-12 win at Hull KR.

Both sides were back in action at the same time the following weekend, as we were beaten 44-0 by the Leeds Rhinos. Meanwhile, Hull lost 15-14 to the Wigan Warriors.

Hull did return to winning ways three weeks ago though, as they won 26-16 at Wakefield, we were beaten 32-12 by Salford.

The last set of Betfred Super League fixtures saw us beaten 24-0 by Castleford at the John Smith’s Stadium, whilst Hull FC were beaten 44-22 by the inform Salford.

Key Players

Danny Houghton

Hull’s captain, Danny Houghton, is arguably their most influential player. Houghton has featured in 23 of the black and whites 26 Betfred Super League games this campaign, scoring once whilst also adding 12 assists.

Houghton leads the way in marker tackles in the whole of Super League this season, he has made 227 so far in 2019. You won’t be surprised to learn that he also leads the way in tackles, having made a competition high, 1144. The hooker has also made 1258 metres so far this season, with an average gain of 7.67 metres per carry.

Kruise Leeming

One of the players Houghton will be going head to head with, is our number nine, Kruise Leeming. He has played 25 of our 26 league games so far this season, scoring six tries, adding eleven assists.

Leeming has made 170 runs from dummy half this season, he has also made 1395 metres, with an average gain of 6.09 metres per carry. He has also made 776 tackles this season.

Key Battle

Jake Connor v Lee Gaskell

There will be many interesting battles all over the pitch tonight, but in particular could be one between two versatile backs, Lee Gaskell and former Giant, Jake Connor.

The two have been influential in their sides campaigns, Gaskell played 18 times this season for us, whilst Connor has featured 20 times for the black and whites. Both have scored four tries in 2019, with Connor edging Gaskell out when it comes to assists, getting 15 compared to our man’s 13.

Gaskell has made 1377 metres this season compared to Connor’s 774, with our number six having an average gain of 7.44 metres per carry, compared to Connor’s 5.49.

Gaskell has also made more clean breaks, making 13 compared to Connor’s five. The Hull man has made more offloads though, making 23 compared to Gaskell’s 16.

Previous Meetings

The two sides have met twice already this season and are tied at one win each. The black and whites winning the first meeting of the season at the John Smith’s Stadium, before we turned on the style in our win at Anfield in May.

The first meeting of the season saw us defeated by the East Yorkshire side. The visitors took the lead in the 15th minute, Joe Westerman collecting his own kick to score after the Giants defence turned off for a minute, Marc Sneyd’s conversion making it 6-0. We responded on the half hour mark, Darnell McIntosh spotting a huge gap in the Hull defence before running through it to score, Oliver Russell’s conversion levelled the game at 6-6. He then added a penalty to make it 8-6 at the interval.

Westerman added his second early in the second half, spinning over from close range, Sneyd’s conversion making it 12-8. Rati Naulago then scored in the right corner to extend their lead to 16-8, Sneyd missing the conversion from the right touchline. Josh Griffin then added the first of his two tries on the hour marking, touching down after a Giants knock-on, Sneyd’s conversion making it 22-8. He got his second just before full-time, winning the race to a chipped kick to touch down. Sneyd’s conversion gave the visitors a 28-8 win at the John Smith’s Stadium.

A magnificent performance in Liverpool in May saw us turn on the style as we beat the black and whites. It only took four minutes for us to grab the first of our ten tries at Anfield, as Joe Wardle made the most of a defensive error by the black and whites, to touch down, Oliver Russell added the two points to give us an early 6-0 lead. Jake Wardle grabbed our second try at the mid-point of the first half, strolling in after a great pass inside from the left wing by Innes Senior. Russell missed the conversion attempt. Adam O’Brien then scored our third try of the half, the first of his two, bouncing off a tackle from dummy half to score underneath the sticks, Russell’s conversion gave us a 16-0 lead. Darnell McIntosh then added our fourth and final try of the half, powering over from close range, the first of his two tries in the game. Russell missed the conversion. Though the try scoring for the half was done, the scoring wasn’t, Russell added a 38th minute drop-goal for us, before Mark Sneyd added Hull’s only points of the game on the hooter, as we were 21-2 up at the break.

It took just four minutes for us to score the first try of the second half, O’Brien once again spotting a gap from dummy half and capitalising to grab his second try of the game. Russell added the conversion to make it 27-2. McIntosh then added his second of the game 15 minutes into the second period, bouncing off a few tackles to spin his way over the try-line. Russell added his fourth conversion of the game to make it 33-2. Alex Mellor then added our seventh try of the game, after a video referee referral, getting the ball down from close range despite attempts from the black and whites to hold him up. Russell adding another conversion to make it 39-2. We added another try four minutes after the hour mark, we ran down the short side, Aaron Murphy making the break, before passing to Jermaine McGillvary on his outside and he sped away for his first of the game. Russell added the conversion from the right-hand side to make it 45-2. We weren’t finished there, ten minutes from time, Lee Gaskell chipped the ball up into the right corner, McGillvary caught it before offloading on his inside for Murphy to burrow his way in at the right corner. Russell missed the conversion. Two minutes from time, McGillvary got his second, strolling in after a cut-out pass. Russell added the conversion to make the final score 55-2 for the Giants at Anfield.

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