Giants fall short in Golden Point thriller

Huddersfield Giants 26-27 Leeds Rhinos

By Joe Buck

A Golden Point winner from Luke Gale snatched victory from the jaws of defeat for Leeds Rhinos and sent them top of Super League.

Despite a hat-trick from Darnell McIntosh, supported by a brace from Louis Senior, Giants were unable to keep Leeds at bay for long enough and they were made to pay.

For 65 minutes, Giants put in their performance of the season and looked to have the game wrapped up but a scintillating last fifteen minutes for Leeds saw them force the game into Golden Point.

There was an early introduction to the ‘six-again’ rule for Giants and they profited from it instantly as Senior scored his fourth try of the season.

The Huddersfield top-scorer pounced on a short kick from Aidan Sezer and despite being agonisingly close to the dead-ball line, he managed to keep his arms away from the whitewash to give Giants the perfect start.

Five minutes later and Leeds thought they had the perfect response but Ashton Golding came back to haunt his old team with a try-saving tackle.

Richie Myler seemed to have spotted a gap to score but he had grounded the ball short of the try-line then swiftly wrapped up by Golding and Rhinos were denied.

They were not denied for long however as, shortly after, Leeds broke quickly and former Giants Alex Mellor set up Konrad Hurrell who crashed over the try-line.

A Rhyse Martin conversion meant Leeds went 6-4 ahead following Sezer’s earlier conversion miss.

Rhinos were ahead for just two minutes however and it was Golding once again making a huge impact on the game.

It was the fullback’s pass that found McIntosh out on the left wing and he had the simple job of touching down to put Giants 8-6 ahead. 

Clearly not satisfied with his first try of 2020, the winger doubled his tally minutes later.

A sumptuous long-pass from Lee Gaskell dragged two Leeds defenders out of the line and McIntosh scored in the corner once again.

Sezer struggled with the boot however and missed his first three conversions meaning, despite leading three tries to one on that count, the scoreboard read just 12-6 to Giants.

The pace of game eventually slowed from a frantic opening and the Giants continued to force the issue as their opponents rarely threatened their line.

Giants finished a dominating 40 minutes on a high with a successful penalty from Sezer to leave them 14-6 ahead at the break.

Giants came storming out the blocks in the second-half as McIntosh completed his hat-trick with an eighty-yard effort.

Capitalising on a loose Leeds pass, the winger picked up the ball and ran, and ran, and ran to score under the posts, leaving Sezer with an easy conversion. 

After a lengthy injury break which saw James Donaldson depart the field, replaced by Kruise Leeming, Giants attacked again and a better kick from Gaskell may have saw McIntosh add his fourth of the game but the ball just left the field of play.

As the game progressed, Giants remained strong defensively whilst Leeds frustrations grew that they could not prise open Huddersfield.

These frustrations boiled over when Ash Handley found himself in the sin-bin for ten minutes for dissent after intercepting a Giants pass.

This sin-binning followed a spate of penalties for Giants and they finally made their opponents pay just after the hour-mark.

This time, it was Senior who added to his account who took a beautifully weighted pass from Sezer to score in the corner.

Sezer seemingly had found his shooting boots as he added a difficult conversion to give his team a 20 point lead with just fifteen minutes remaining.

However, Rhinos were not dead and buried just yet and Luke Gale exploited a rare gap in the Giants defence and the deficit was narrowed to 16 points, Martin missing his conversion attempt.

And then Leeds scored again, and for the first time, the Giants defence were on the ropes.

Luke Briscoe the man to score in the corner this time, however, once again the conversion was missed and Huddersfield led by 12. 

Alex Mellor was the next beneficiary of some scintillating Leeds attack and despite looking like Golding had held him up, referee Robert Hicks awarded Mellor the try and with seven left on the clock, the scoreboard read 26-20 to Giants.

Unbelievably, Hurrell soon grabbed his second of the game and the score was 26-24 with just one minute to play. 

Martin duly delivered the conversion and the game was level for the first time since kick-off, Golden Point awaited.

A missed effort from Gaskell opened the door for Gale who’s effort sailed over the post and sent Rhinos top of the table.