30 Jul 2019

THE CHALKBOARD: VS HULL KR

All the news and views from the xs and os in our game against the Robins last time out.

After such a close loss at home to top 5 chasing Catalans, this weeks fixture away to Hull KR had a must win feel to it. In the words of Head Coach Woolford “every game is a final” and the boys in Claret and Gold definitely took those words to heed as they fought for every little slice of luck and battled for every point in front of the Craven Park faithful.

As we dive further and further into this new weekly analysis, some things will come up time and time, and time again. One such thing is the age old proverb ‘penalty, penalty, try.’, and having spoke about mistakes early doors in both the previous fixtures I’m sure the last thing Simon Woolford would want to see is, ‘penalty, penalty, penalty’ just 5 minutes in, giving the home side possession 10m out.

As for the try itself, nothing much more could be said than, perhaps after McGillvary fended off one danger and gave the home side a second shot 10m out, there was a lack of composure as the lads faced their 4th consecutive set of 6. Slightly late movement from Senior, playing out of position, gave the robins a chance to slam down a well weighted grubber kick.

Huddersfield, once again, managed to recover from a poor start to score points and throw the game back open. The first coming from powerful work, that is sometimes overlooked.

Ukuma Ta’ai has had many plaudits this year for the work he continues to do in the Giants pack, and after pushing a metre short from the line, manages a quick play the ball, as we pick it up just over a second from that, we see the robins defence slightly slow up, giving O’Brien the time to manoeuvre and create.

If the man immediately next to the ones standing as markers in classed as Defender A, then next to him B etc. What we see is the markers unable to move fast, with Ta’ai takes that option away with the quick play the ball, meaning defender A is still tight but B is moving away albeit slightly slower, but it still creates the gap between the two defenders.

Defender C will then push in meaning when the grubber is weighted to the back of the in-goal, English can be the first man to it going around the outside shoulder.

Alex Mellor has been an impressive line runner all season, his try however included an element of sheer desire and drive, as he hit his defender almost flat on and powered his way over his outside shoulder to slam down.

Danny McGuire did what he’s made a career of, with a glittering floated pass to Craig Hall, and at this point tensions where high amongst the Huddersfield fans and staff, having been pipped in so many close calls this season, everyone was praying for another try to seal the win.

Kruise Leeming’s impact off the bench has been notable many times this season, but this moment may just spell the end of serious relegation worries, quick movement from dummy-half pulled in not one, not two but four Hull KR defenders just enough to leave the space for Lee Gaskell to find his perfect kick, and boy was it perfect.

Jerry McGillvary - Cometh the hour, cometh the man.

We could’ve easily picked out a couple of double acts as our moment/player of the game, with the Holmes/Gaskell partnership sparkling, just as it did at Salford. Or perhaps even the dummy-half duo, both creating space and causing havoc for those A+B defenders. But today we couldn’t look past the man, the myth, the legend that is #HuddersfieldBorn, Jermaine McGillvary.

After signing a contract extension, seeing him stay with the club till 2022, fans would have been singing in the streets throughout the off-season, and now with some security - although the job isn’t done - it might just be McGillvary’s try that will have Giants fans dancing the Super League dance, once more.

His hard work from the backfield is noted, and is partially the reason he is still England’s no. 2, being able to compete with the big outside backs countries down under produce, but his ability near the line is just as impressive.