Giants complete sweep of pre-season games

Huddersfield Giants 26-22 Batley Bulldogs

Huddersfield Giants put on a good show as they travelled to Batley for their final preseason friendly of the season before the Giants first round game away in Perpignan. The match saw a completely changed side to that, that played away at Wakefield in midweek. A host of Giants youngsters lined up against an experienced championship set up in the Batley Bulldogs.

Batley’s pitch famed for its slanted posture, played in favour to the Giants in the first half as they were given the downhill. Early on the Giants plan was telling, the high pressure in the first few sets of the match immediately forced Batley into a goal line dropout. Moments later the intense press from the Giants would get them the first try of the game. The pressure forced Batley to shift the ball quickly through the hands which lead to a wayward pass from their centre and force the turnover.

From the resulting set Riess Butterworth ran 10 meters in front of the Batley defence threw a dummy pass and darted through the resulting opening. He ran straight through the line to find the right-hand side of the field to score the Giants first of the match. Oliver Russell converted the try brilliantly from a tight angle with the ball coming in off the left-hand post. 6-0 Giants.

Six minutes later and the Giants were in again, an unexpected looping kick was played into the right-hand corner again where the resulting scramble between the Batley defender and Benjamin Tibbs ended with Tibbs claiming the ball and touching down for the Giants second of the game. Russell again with a job to do, to score the conversation, kicked beautifully to give the Giants the extra points. 12-0

It was after this that the game began to flair. Oliver Wilson was brought to the ground in the centre of the pitch when suddenly there seemed to be an exchange of fists as it appeared that Wilson was punched whilst on the ground. After the resulting scuffle the referee decided to not hand out any punishment. But this incident would spark up the game in maybe the wrong way.

It took 20 minutes for Batley to threaten at all when on the left of the field Shaun Lunt played through a little grubber which could have threatened had it not been for the good work of the Travis Corion.

Five minutes later Batley were celebrating a try off the back of a Giants scrum but the Referee rightly called the player back for offside who seemed to have travelled the 10 meter retreat in a spilt second and the ref wasn’t having it.

After what was, to say the least, a flared few minutes Russell decided to slow the game down by opting to kick from a penalty instead of run. A decision probably correct for the moment. He converted easily  once again 14 – 0.

Oliver Russell was then again instrumental in the Giants third try of the afternoon when he kicked a brilliant 40/20 to put the Giants meters away with all the momentum. The resulting set saw John-Luke Kirby crash through under the posts and with a host of Batley players hanging off him managed to reach and successfully score for the Giants. The conversion was easy. 20-0 to the Giants.

After another few turbulent minutes a Batley player was shown a yellow following a full team warning. Down to 12 men Batley could do noting about Huddersfield’s final try of the game. Jordan Paga taunted the Batley line before playing through an on rushing Oliver Roberts who crashed through the middle and scored the try with almost no pressure. Another successful conversion from Oliver Russell saw the Giants go into half time with a 26-0 lead.

If the cliché ‘game of two halves’ is overused, then it was being saved for games like this.

In the second half something changed in the Giants, whether it was the brilliant pressure in the first half added to the impact of having to deal with the uphill in the second or that the Bulldogs just improved something definitely changed. An array of penalties were given away in bad defensive positions by the Giants youngsters which in the end lead to Batley dominating the half.

It seemed that with almost every attack Batley might score, but in credit to the Giants some of the defensive work was brilliant. With only three minutes on the clock Batley had reduced the deficit to 16-26. In the final play spectacular Shaun Lunt 40/20 lead to Dane Manning breaking through to give the final score of 26-22.

It was by no means the second half the Giants wanted to give but they had worked hard enough in the first that not even the experienced Batley side could topple the brilliant Giant youngsters.

Overall a great end to pre-season and now, the Super League awaits.