MATCH REPORT: HUDDERSFIELD GIANTS 22-16 LONDON BRONCOS
MATCH REPORT: Huddersfield giants 22-16 lONDON bRONCOS
It felt like watching the London Broncos from a good few weeks ago this afternoon as a collection of our own mistakes are enough to cost us the game and another chance of getting off the bottom of the Super League table. Credit to Tolohea & Russell specifically who were able to take advantage of the opportunities given to the Giants, with Tolohea scoring the try’s & Russell converting and scoring the penalty kicks.
As the game kicked off with Huddersfield kicking to London from right to left, London immediately found themselves penned inside their own 20m line with great defensive line speed and powerful contact by Huddersfield. The pressure continued to mount in the third minute as Huddersfield’s chip through is kicked dead by Campagnolo, producing the first goal line drop out of the half for London.
However, after surviving the early Huddersfield pressure, Leyland makes an excellent kick to provide London with a 40-20 in excellent field position but unfortunately on this particular set, London can’t do anything with it as Adebiyi dropped the ball on the second play of the set but then, London’s luck increased as Tolohea produced a forward pass giving London the scrum 20m out which the Broncos made the most of with Sam Davis & Marcus Stock making the switch in play off the ruck and Stock bundled over the try line for London’s first points of the game.
Once again, from the try, Huddersfield stuck the defensive pressure on London and in the 17th minute, Huddersfield had the chance to strike as Livett makes a great break on the left-hand side of the pitch, but his attempted offload went well forward, and London got the scrum and subsequently the penalty as the Giants were offside from the scrum.
After some back and forth play between the two sides, London make their first real mistake of the half as Miloudi caught the ball only a few meters away from his try line and decided to offload in the tackle which, unfortunately, doesn’t meet any Broncos players and Huddersfield are able to recover and after a couple of phases Tolohea chipped through to Bassett who drops the ball on the try line which Tolohea then chases and grounds.
After the try in the 30th minute, Adebiyi then proceeded to make a late tackle on Clune after kicking the ball and Russell made the most of the penalty by kicking for 2 points just a few meters outside of the Broncos try line, gifting Huddersfield the first lead of the match.
Despite London’s penalty for a high tackle on Josh Rourke in their goal area, the Broncos can’t do anything with it and Huddersfield capitalise on this as Naiqama finds a gap in the Broncos defence and makes a big break and is able to offload to Tolohea for his second try of the half. Russell converts once again as the buzzer goes off for half time.
HALF TIME- HUDDERSFIELD GIANTS 14-6 LONDON BRONCOS
The second half began quite slowly as there was a couple of minutes with time off as Miloudi went down injured but was able to carry on shortly after play resumed and was able to capitalise on some positive Broncos attacking play as he grounded Leyland’s chip through in the 44th minute to score London’s second try of the game.
After Miloudi’s try, it looked as though the Broncos had gained some positive momentum and managed to get themselves two penalties in as many minutes for offside calls against Huddersfield and then London got a third penalty of the half in the 49th minute for an obstruction which they managed to make the most of in an almost identical manor to their try a few minutes earlier as Adebiyi managed to ground Leyland’s chip through the Giants defence to get his first Super League try of the year.
From the point of Adebiyi scoring it almost looked as though the roles had reversed as London gifted Huddersfield two penalties in two minutes, one for offside and the other for a high shot by Waine. They cannot convert these two opportunities but manage to maintain the momentum and pressure which paid off in the 62nd minute as Rourke gathered the ball in the Broncos goal area and looked to have managed to get the ball back over the try line but the video referee gave a goal line drop out which turned into a Huddersfield penalty for dissent by Rourke. Huddersfield go for two points once more and Russell converted to give Huddersfield their second lead of the game.
From this point, it looked as though London had gone back to the team which they were in the first few weeks of the season as Stock dropped a relatively easy pass in the middle of the field and Kershaw couldn’t catch the uncontested high ball to gift Huddersfield field position. Despite not being able to convert from this chance Huddersfield were gifted yet another chance as Campagnolo’s goal line drop out attempt didn’t go 10m and then within this set, Will Lovell decided to make a late hit on a Huddersfield player which led to time off as players from both sides flew into the handbags which ensued after the tackle. After looking at the play on the big screen, the video referee and James Vella decided that the tackle was sin bin worthy, and the Broncos were down to 12 for the rest of the game.
A minute later, in the 76th minute, Huddersfield made London pay as Harry Rushton powered his way over the try line to cement the win for Huddersfield. Despite London getting a scrum with 30 seconds left, they are not able to get the ball in quick enough and the buzzer sounds for the end of the game.
FULL TIME- HUDDERSFIELD GIANTS 22-16 LONDON BRONCOS
Penalties conceded: 5-7
Referee- James Vella
Huddersfield Giants:
Squad:
6) Lulu Tolohea, 30) Aidan McGowan, 3) Esan Marsters, 4) Kevin Naiqama, 5) Jake Bibby, 7) Adam Clune, 23) Olly Russell, 8) Chris Hill, 19) Thomas Deakin, 10) Joe Greenwood, 22) Harvey Livett, 16) Harry Rushton, 21) Leroy Cudjoe
Interchanges: 27) Kieran Rush, 18) Sebastine Ikahihifo, 15) Matty English, 17) Oliver Wilson
Try: Tolohea (28, 38), Rushton (75).
Conversion: Olly Russell 2/3
Sin-bin:
Goal: Russell 3/3
London Broncos:
Squad:
23) Josh Rourke, 2) Lee Kershaw, 12) Ethan Natoli, 3) Jarred Bassett, 4) Hakim Miloudi, 20) Oli Leyland, 6) Jack Campagnolo, 8) Rob Butler, 9) Sam Davis, 19) Rhys Kennedy, 11) Will Lovell ©, 17) Sadiq Adebiyi, 15) Marcus Stock.
Interchanges: 34) Ugo Tison, 10) Lewis Bienek, 29) Jacob Jones, 18) Emmanuel Waine
Try: Stock (14), Miloudi (44), Adebiyi (51)
Conversion: Leyland 2/3
Sin-bin: Lovell (74)
Drop Goal: N/A
