Batley 18-28 Huddersfield match report & CC 4th Round review!

Batley Bulldogs 18-28 Huddersfield Giants

Huddersfield were given an almighty scare by their lower league West Yorkshire rivals, Batley Bulldogs. Batley started the game much better than the Giants; they were the better team throughout the whole match and were unlucky to lose.

Huddersfield took an early lead through a Kevin Brown try which was converted by Danny Brough, but Batley soon hit back with two tries from Dane Manning and Jason Walton which gave them a four point lead. Lee Gilmour scored for the Giants before half time which meant the two sides went into the second half locked on 10 points a piece.

After the break Batley again came out the better side, looking more like the Super League team through most of the match, former Huddersfield player Alex Brown scored giving Batley a six point lead (converted by Handforth) which was soon extended to an eight point lead after a penalty kick by Paul Handforth.

Try scorer Dane Manning was controversially sent off for a high tackle on Huddersfield’s Larne Patrick, who was arguably the Giants best player, although it didn’t take much. That sending off killed off Batley’s chances as Huddersfield scored three quick fire tries through Danny Brough, Joe Wardle and David Hodgson giving them the lead, despite the fact Danny Brough clearly didn’t have his kicking boots on as he converted only two kicks in the whole match. Leroy Cudjoe scored a late try under the posts for the Giants which meant Brough had an easy conversion.

The final score was Batley 18-28 Huddersfield but no way was it a true reflection of the game. Batley were the better side from the beginning and were unlucky not to go through; I’m sure they’ll be there or thereabouts at the end of the Cooperative Championship season. Just lay off the high tackles, yeah?! ;)

The only positive any Huddersfield fan, like myself, can take out of the game is that at least they had a “proper” match and it wasn’t a walkover like many of the other matches, other than that it was a pretty pathetic display.

The only other match I’ve actually watched is the Leeds-Crusaders match which finished 30-20 to the home side. Leeds did incredibly well to win despite having only one fit substitute well before the end, and going 10-0 down very early on in the game. The Welsh side had a man sent off after a deliberate trip on Rob Burrow, as Eddie and Stevo would say, his mind exploded, and that had a detrimental effect on Crusaders’ chances of progressing to the fifth round.

There weren’t any shocks elsewhere with Leigh Centurions being the closest to knocking a super league side out, when they lost by 16 points to 22 .They were as unlucky as Batley were not to go through.

It was pretty much business as usual for the other Super League teams as, bar Crusaders, they all progressed to the 5^th round.

Carnegie Challenge Cup 4^th Round Results in full are:

Gateshead 0-70 Harlequins

Leigh 16-22 Catalans

Featherstone 42-16 FC Lezignan-Corbieres

Leeds 30-20 Crusaders

St Helens 52-26 Sheffield

Hull FC 82-0 Oldham

Halifax 34-46 Bradford

Hunslet 2-68 Salford

Doncaster 10-50 Wakefield

London Skolars 18-62 Widnes

Wigan 52-0 Barrow

Warrington 80-0 Keighley

Rochdale 10-72 Castleford

Dewsbury 38-44 Swinton

Batley 18-28 Huddersfield

York 22-64 Hull KR  

There were some huge scores in this round of Challenge Cup with a 1000+ points being scored in total! Like usual the draw for the fifth round has thrown up some great tie and there are some brilliant matches in prospect. The draw is:

Huddersfield v Catalan Dragons

Leeds v Harlequins

Salford v Hull K R

St Helens v Featherstone

Wakefield v Castleford

Warrington v Swinton

Widnes v Hull

Bradford v Wigan

All ties to be played on the weekend of 21/22 May. 

The Super League previews will return on Thursday night in time for the Friday night matches. Enjoy your week!