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Round 14: Wildcats 6-54 Huddersfield
engage Super League XIV- Round 14
Wakefield Wildcats 6-54 Huddersfield Giants
Hearwell Stadium
Attendance: 5, 038
Huddersfield’s David Hodgson enjoyed his afternoon in the sun at as he claimed a hat-trick of tries as Wakefield were comprehensively beaten at the Hearwell Stadium.
The Giants ran in ten tries in all with Scott Moore claiming a brace and Danny Kirmond, Leroy Cudjoe, Kevin Brown, Paul Whaturia and Jamahl Lolesi all going over the whitewash.
Matt Blaymire’s try had the Wildcats in contention at 6-14 at the interval but the home side never got going in the second period and came out on the end of the heaviest defeat of the season.
Jamie Rooney made his first start of 2009 and James Stosic replaced the injured Oliver Wilkes whose run of 86 consecutive appearances came to an end. Sean Gleeson returned on the wing with Frank Winterstein not included in the match day seventeen.
Kirmond got the Giants off to the best possible start when on three minutes he was in the right place at the right time to take Hodgson’s tap back from Luke Robinson’s kick to the left hand corner.
Robinson himself could have added to the visitor’s lead, but with the line at his mercy the pass inside to him was out of his reach and the Wildcats had a let off.
A Sam Obst half-break after eight minutes sparked a period of concerted pressure for the home side with Huddersfield forced to defend back-to-back sets near their try line, with the tireless Richard Moore held up over the line on ten minutes.
Moore was involved in Wakefield’s next most dangerous moment; offloading to Tony Martin who broke down the left before kicking on for Obst who was beaten to the ball by the covering Cudjoe.
The only time the Giants had their hands on the ball in Wildcats territory brought an outstanding piece of defence from Rooney. Brown intercepted Martin’s pass ten metres from his own line and was only hauled down a matter of inches from the whitewash after Rooney’s exceptional chase back.
Wakefield’s pressure continued to build after this including a 40/20 from Obst and on 24 minutes the dominance in possession was made to tell when Martin checked back inside and passed to Blaymire who reached over the tackle to spot the ball down on the try line.
The Giants ended the half in strong fashion though when Gleeson took a gamble on Scott Moore’s kick going out on the full only for the ball to land inside the touchline and result in a 40/20.
From the resultant set Cudjoe fired the pass out to the left flank for Hodgson to regain the lead for Nathan Brown’s side.
Huddersfield had a fluidity in attack that was missing from the Wildcats in the first half, and it was evident once again when Cudjoe extended the lead after Hodgson’s break and pass.
Andy Raleigh had a try disallowed for a forward pass with a couple of minutes from the interval, and despite Wakefield’s superior territorial and control of the ball in the half as a whole they trailed by eight points at the break.
As with last weekend’s third quarter against Harlequins RL it was the twenty minute period after half-time which killed off any realistic ambitions the Wildcats had of claiming the two points.
Four minutes into the second period and Robinson popped up a pass for Brown, who running on the angle cruised through the Wakefield defensive line to touchdown.
Scott Moore intercepted a Jason Demetriou pass three minutes later to canter under the posts, and when David Faimu and Robinson linked up Whatuira had an easy stroll to the try line.
The Wakefield defence was becoming looser as the game progressed with Robinson taking advantage of some slack marker defence to break from dummy half and hand on to Hodgson who again ran unopposed to make it four Huddersfield tries in the third quarter of the match.
On sixty-six minutes it got even worse for John Kear and his side with Moore feinting to go left then passing right to Lolesi who reached his arm out of the tackle to claim another four pointer.
Huddersfield had a second intercept try on 73 minutes after Martin’s pass was snappled up by Hodgson who ran forty metres to complete his hat-trick.
Moore claimed a second try of the match in the dying minutes to round of an impressive personal performance, whilst the Wildcats trudged off the field after a pointless and demoralising second stanza which extended their losing run to five games.
Wakefield: Blaymire, Gleeson, Demetriou, Atkins, George, Martin, Rooney, Bibey, Obst, Moore, Pitts, Snitch, Henderson.
Replacements: Bibb, Stosic, Grix, Leo-Latu.
Huddersfield: Cudjoe, Aspinwall, Lolesi, Whaturia, D Hodgson, Brown, Robinson, Mason, Moore, D Griffin, Wild, Kirmond, Finnigan.
Replacements: Crabtree, Faiumu, Raleigh, Mossop.
Referee: P Bentham (Warrington)
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