Round 7
Huddersfield Giants 16 l. Salford City Reds 18

2007 engage English Super League Index [Table] [Draw] [Player Stats] [Club Headlines]

Location: United Kingdom > National > First Grade Competition: engage English Super League

Round 7 Super League Summary
Wed March 28, 2007
Round 7 of the engage Super League provided us with plenty more of the unpredictable, thrills and skills that we've come to expect from this season.

There were three games played on Friday evening, the first of which saw Wigan travelling to the KC stadium to take on Hull FC. Hull's miserable season had improved dramatically after a hugely impressive performance last week against St Helens, to claim their first win of the season. It was Wigan, however, who came away with the two points after putting in an equally impressive performance to claim a 20-30 victory. Trent Barrett scored two tries for the Warriors, who moved into the play off positions for the first time this year. Wigan boss, Brian Noble, believes that Barrett is, "Going to be big for us" whilst Hull 's Peter Sharp described his teams performance as, "A pile of rubbish to tell you the truth".

St Helens got their season back on track after a routine victory against the other side of Hull at Knowsley Road. Saints' Captain Paul Sculthorpe scored a try and kicked four goals in his side's 42-14 win. He claimed the Man of the Match award as he continues his recovery from a persistent knee injury. Hull KR were without influential captain James Webster for the clash and coach Justin Morgan, was satisfied with his team's performance saying, "I'm proud of their effort and our attitude was good."

Friday night's other game saw Leeds run out 28-16 victors against Harlequins at Headingly. Harlequin's will think of themselves as unlucky after two of Leeds' tries came from deflections and another from a blatant forward pass. Tony Smith, who signed up to become the new, full time Great Britain coach on Monday, hailed new signing Brent Webb's impact on the game after he scoring two tries.

There were no games on Saturday, due to football and cricket, so Sunday saw three games. League leaders Bradford, were at home to the Catalan Dragons, however they found themselves on the wrong end of a 22-29 defeat. The Dragons came out all guns blazing to establish a 0-10 lead through tries from Casey McGuire and Stacy Jones. The Bulls came back into it, however the Dragon's defence laid the platform for them to claim only their third ever away victory. Catalan's coach Mick Potter said, " I'm very happy" about the result whilst Bradford Coach, Steve McNamara said that his team were, "poor and thoroughly disappointed with our performance."

Huddersfield again failed to claim a point from their home game against struggling Salford as they slumped to a 16-18 defeat. The Giant's seventh straight loss leaves them 5 points adrift, despite only having a 30 point negative point's difference. Luke Robinson scored a brace of tries to help Salford to their only their second victory of the season.

Wakefield coach, John Kear, described his team's 30-24 victory over Warrington as a, "Great advert for Rugby League". Kear was delighted with his team's guts after they recovered from falling 16-24 behind in a thrilling game at Belle Vue. The victory lifts Wakefield into second place on the table and reinforces their status as this years surprise package. Warrington coach, Paul Cullen blamed his side's composure for the loss saying, "there was enough effort and enough skill, but not enough composure."

The Super League takes a break next week to make room for the fourth round of the Challenge Cup.


Salford win leaving Huddersfield five points adrift
Mon March 26, 2007
Source: www.superleague.co.uk

Teenager Jordan Turner scored his first try for Salford City Reds to seal a vital win that leaves Huddersfield Giants five points adrift at the foot of the engage Super League table.

The west Yorkshire side slipped to a seventh successive defeat, although captain Chris Thorman had a late chance to snatch a draw when he pulled a penalty wide.

Salford claimed only their second win of the season after holding their nerve to edge a tense encounter at the Galpharm Stadium, where they suffered three emphatic defeats in 2006.

Another narrow defeat was tough on Huddersfield, who dominated the match for long periods and have the third best defence in the league but badly lacked creativity in attack.

Despite enjoying an overwhelming share of possession, the Giants trailed 12-4 after conceding a brace of Luke Robinson tries which came against the run of play.

The scores illustrated Huddersfield's fragile confidence and Salford's danger on the counter-attack.

Robinson pounced on six minutes after defender John Skandalis failed to drop on John Wilshere's kick to the line and he went over again from first receiver on 30 minutes to take advantage of a break out of defence by second rower Luke Adamson.

The visitors' second try came while they were down to 12 players with the sin-binning of debutant hooker David Berthezene as Huddersfield failed to take advantage of the extra man.

In between, Huddersfield winger Matt Gardner pounced on Brad Drew's kick for a try and they got back to within two points with a try on half-time from Thorman, who finished off a break by the impressive Chris Nero, who also pulled off two tremendous try-saving tackles.

The all-important try score came on 55 minutes when 18-year-old Turner raced onto Robinson's smart pass and Wilshere's third successful conversion restored his side's eight-point lead.

As Huddersfield piled on the pressure, Nero had a try disallowed for a double movement and Ryan Hudson was held up on his back.

The pressure finally told when second-rower Andy Raleigh burst onto Robbie Paul's pass for his first try of the season but it was too little, too late.

Thorman added the goal and had an opportunity to tie the scores but he was wide with a penalty three minutes from the end.

Huddersfield Giants: (10) 16
Tries: Gardner, Thorman, Raleigh
Goals: Thorman 2

Salford City Reds: (12) 18
Tries: Robinson 2, Turner
Goals: Wilshere 3

Huddersfield Giants: Reilly, Aspinwall, Lolesi, Nero, Gardner, Thorman, Paul, Mason, Drew, Skandalis, Jones, Raleigh, Wild.
Replacements: Crabtree, Jackson, Griffin, Hudson.

Salford City Reds: Hodgson, Williams, McGuinness, Turner, Wilshere, Dorn, Robinson, Korkidas, Berthezene, Highton, Coley, Adamson, Finnigan.
Replacements: Littler, Haggerty, Jewitt, Brocklehurst.

Referee: R Silverwood
Attendance: 5,275

Report source: www.superleague.co.uk

Article: Sharp: Anxiety holding Giants back

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