Friday 13th May.
I mentioned in my previews for this round that some teams could have their worst dreams come true on Friday 13th and for Harlequins and Castleford that pretty much came true! More of that later…
Salford City Reds 16-32 Hull FC;
Hull FC continued their winning run on Friday night with victory against Salford. Hull opened their points bank early, going 18-0 up by the eleventh minute. Similar to how the started the match against St Helens a couple of weeks ago; we all know how that finished! Hull didn’t want to let Salford mount a comeback like Saints did.
Salford had put 102 points past their opponents in their last two matches so you could say that confidence was pretty high. Their defence this week was dreadful, especially in the first quarter. They did score two tries before halftime and were back in the game, despite being 14 points behind. The half time score was 24-10 in Hull’s favour.
Salford started the second half better than they did the first half. They scored first through a Stefan Ratchford try which was converted by Daniel Holdsworth, however that was their final score of the match with Hull going on to score two more tries.
Crusaders RL 23-10 Wakefield Trinity Wildcats;
Crusaders still sit bottom of the table despite their victory against thirteenth placed Wakefield. It was the away side that started the game better, scoring two tries both of which were scored by Dale Morton. Only one of which was converted by Josh Griffin, however. The Yorkshire men went into the half time break 10 points up.
Crusaders got back in the game immediately and it was soon 10 all and it was clear to see that Crusaders wanted this victory more than the Wildcats, despite their performance in the first half.
A Michael Witt drop-goal in the 68th minute gave Crusaders the lead for the first time in the match; whether it’s one point or a hundred, it’s still a lead! Wakefield put a lot of ball to ground and it was probably their handling errors in the second half that lost them the game. Ryan O’Hara and Rhys Hanbury both scored in the final few minutes to seal victory for Crusaders who are now only 2 points away from Wakefield in the table.
Leeds continued their winning streak with victory over French side Catalans. The win takes them up to 5th place in the Super League table. According to all accounts the scoreline flatters Leeds a little as Catalans tried their very best, with quite a few players out, and were still in the game for at least an hour.
It must have been a real tough encounter in the first half as only one try was scored; Ryan Hall was the scorer for Leeds. 6-0 was the half time score.
It was a battle of the defences throughout the whole game and it wasn’t until the 52nd minute when the next try was scored, Kylie Leuluai scoring his second try of the season for Leeds. Ryan Hall ran 60 metres only to be taken in to touch 20 metres away from Catalans’ line. Catalans themselves scored ten minutes after Leeds’ second try with Ian Henderson scoring; it was converted by Thomas Bosc. That was their only score of the game.
Sinfield kicked a penalty for the home side before Zak Hardaker scored two tries near the end of the game to seal the victory. Rob Burrow also scored to give Leeds a 24 point winning margin.
Wigan Warriors 54-6 Harlequins RL;
Harlequins absolutely thumped Gateshead in the Challenge Cup last weekend but they were 24 points down by the 12th minute of the match, no repeat of their victory against the reigning super league champions again this year!
It’s pretty clear from the scoreline that they were never in the game and they were losing by 42 points at half time, imagine the team talk! Admittedly, the Londoners did get better in the second half, well marginally, but lets face it they were never going to come back from 42-0 at half time were they?!
Former Wigan wing-man Mark Calderwood scored Harlequins’ solo try which could only give them mere consolation on the journey home. Harlequins, it could have been worse, you could have been Castleford playing Warrington.
Warrington Wolves 62-0 Castleford Tigers;
Castleford got well and truly destroyed on Friday night by Warrington who were playing in their charity kit. I am possibly the only person who likes that kit as the consensus on twitter was that it was “vile” and “disgusting”. Eddie called it gold, is he bloody colour blind as well as being a complete idiot?
Castleford were physically strong enough to battle with league leaders Warrington who were on fire. They went 10 points up within seven minutes as Super League debutant Gareth O’Brien and Warrington legend Lee Briers both crossed for Wire.
Castleford’s defence was pretty much none existent, well it wasn't players were there, obviously, they just couldn’t “defend the indefensible".
There are so many tries, eleven in total, to talk about but I actually feel sorry for Castleford. I know what it’s like to be on the wrong end of that sort of scoreline against Castleford – Challenge Cup last year, worst match ever!
Well done Warrington, it’s back to the drawing board for Castleford.
Saturday 14th May
Huddersfield Giants 40-18 St Helens;
Despite the fact St Helens had 11 players out injured their team for this match, on paper, it didn’t look too bad at all. Apparently the lost Chris Flannery in the warm up, but according to sources earlier on in the week he was injured prior to the match anyway. Huddersfield also lost Luke O’Donnell in the warm up, I am unsure as to the extent of his injury and hopefully he’ll be back soon.
It was Eorl Crabtree, of all the players, who scored the first try which was made by Luke Robinson who had a wonderful game; we really missed him last weekend against Batley.
Huddersfield had plenty of chances throughout the match but silly handling errors scuppered any chance of adding to their 6 point lead. As I tweeted about the god awful passes that my boys (Huddersfield) throw do my head in! They’ve been doing them ever since round one and they have never worked, he put so much ball to ground and there’s nothing more annoying!
Anyway, it was Huddersfield who doubled their score before halftime with Danny Brough making amends for his fluff earlier on. He ran seventy metres and a speedier Paul Wellens could have caught him, I don’t know what the hell he was doing but his attempted ankle tap was pathetic!
St Helens nearly scored before half time after a break by James Roby and James Graham only for one of them to pass to a Huddersfield player, I can’t remember who it was and I haven’t watched it back yet to find out. The half time score was 12-0, but we knew that a 12 point lead at half time rarely wins games, especially against St Helens.
Saints came out fired up for the second half and they were the first to score a try. Huddersfield, who had the best defence in the league at the time, fumbled the ball for James Roby to set Louie McCarthy Scarsbrook up to score. As you can imagine, Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook your name is too long echoed around the stadium after that!
Huddersfield sealed the victory with four tries in ten minutes the best of which was Michael “Bruno” Lawrence’s which was set up by Leroy Cudjoe. If you haven’t seen it you have missed out, it was the pass of the season and we were all talking about it in the bar after the match! Legendary! I don’t think Saints got much, if any, of the ball in that period; however they did get two tries that proved to be consolation through Ade Gardner and Matty Ashurst.
Any hopes that St Helens and their fans had of an attempted fight back were killed when my beloved dove from above, Scott Grix, scored the final try of the match!
I know people, Eddie, Stevo & co probably did, will say “Saints had so many injuries” and things along those lines but at the end of the day you can only beat who is out in front of you! We won, end of.
Sunday 15th May
Hull KR 46-18 Bradford Bulls;
Hull KR's victory means they have leapfrogged today's opponents Bradford along with Harlequins and Salford into 9th place in Super League, just outside the play off places. It was Bradford who opened the scoring after a Kyle Briggs try, which was converted by Patrick Ah Van. However, when the Bulls were defending James Donaldson knocked on a mere 15 metres away from his own try line which gave Rovers possession; they scored in the second set. It was Kris Welham's first try of three. It only took three minutes for the home side to score again, Kris Welham getting his second.
Hull KR had a 28-12 lead at half time thanks to three more tries from Blake Green, Jake Webster and Michael Dobson. Liam Watts scored a simple try straight after the break which put most hopes of a Bradford come back to bed. Bradford had their chances but errors proved costly, before Welham completed his hat trick. Hull KR, also, had more chances but their errors didn't matter as they already had the 2 points in the bag.
Peter Fox sealed the victory three minutes from time with a simple try.
And so Round 14 is over and we're just over half way in Super League season. It's still tight at the top of the table with three teams, Warrington, Huddersfield and Wigan all on 20 points. Warrington are "top" on points difference alone whereas Wigan have a game in hand.
It's the Challenge Cup 5th round this weekend so previews for the three Friday matches will be up on Thursday night. Have a good week!
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