Super League: Castleford Tigers 26-18 Huddersfield Giants - Visitors' winning run comes to an end
- Published
Betfred Super League |
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Castleford (20) 26 |
Tries: Olpherts 2, Trueman, Mamo Goals: Richardson 5 |
Huddersfield (6) 18 |
Tries: McGillvary, McQueen, Pryce Goals: Pryce 3 |
Castleford Tigers ended Huddersfield Giants' six-game Super League winning streak courtesy of a storming first half performance.
Derrell Olpherts and Jake Trueman led Cas into a 20-0 lead as they took the game to the Giants early on.
Jermaine McGillvary's try cut the deficit just before the break as the visitors fought back.
Jake Mamo extended the Tigers' advantage before Chris McQueen and Will Pryce set up a tense finish.
Castleford, who went into the game after beating Catalans in golden-point extra time on Sunday, move up to fifth in the table courtesy of their win.
Meanwhile, Huddersfield missed the chance to go second as their remarkable recent run came to a crashing end at the Mend-a-Hose Jungle.
Toby King started on his debut for the Giants, having joined the club in a swap deal involving Joe Wardle earlier this week.
Cas were rewarded with the lead against the run of play as Trueman latched onto a Giants knock-on and fed Olpherts to touch down with ease.
Soon after, Trueman weaved his way past several attempts to bring him down before breaking through to cross the line following a huge drive and Olpherts crashed over with his second before the break.
Just before half-time, however, Huddersfield began to make amends for their poor start as McGillvary finished well at the corner to put their first points on the board.
Mamo touched down his fifth try of the campaign on the restart and despite Huddersfield's late rally through McQueen and Pryce, it was too little too late for the visitors.
Castleford Tigers coach Lee Radford told BBC Radio Leeds:
"It's three weeks running now that they've really turned up for each other.
"In the first half I just thought they looked like they enjoyed defending and wanted to defend. That's something that has taken a while to come.
"We've got to keep hold of that now and maintain it because the importance of that is massive for us."
Huddersfield Giants boss Ian Watson told BBC Radio Leeds:
"It's disappointing, we didn't play anything like how we have all year.. We'll have to put it down to one of those games.
"We know how to fix it up and that's getting back to the training field and doing all the right things with our processes.
"We seemed to react badly whereas normally we're not too bad but we know how to fix it up and get the right result going forward."
Castleford: Eden, Faraimo, Mamo, Fonua, Olpherts, Trueman, Richardson, Massey, Milner, Griffin, Edwards, Mellor, Westerman.
Interchanges: McShane, Lawler, Smith, Matagi.
Huddersfield: Lolohea, McGillvary, Cudjoe, King, Senior, Pryce, Russell, Wilson, Levi, Trout, Jones, McQueen, Yates.
Interchanges: Golding, Lawrence, Greenwood, Ikahihifo.
Referee: J. Smith.