The boys are back in town; back to winning ways.

Huddersfield got back to winning ways against Hull KR on Saturday night after three losses in a row. It was our first game back at the Galpharm stadium after playing our last three "home" matches at The Shay whilst the pitch was being renovated; in my honest opinion it didn't look any different but I'm no grass expert. It was good to be back in my cushioned seat though! 

The Giants didn't start the game particularly well, Hull KR looked the better side and when they scored first I did think "here we go again". Thankfully, that didn't happen. 

Some of the tries we scored were brilliant; Leroy Cudjoe's try was very similar to the one he scored last week against Castleford. Scott Grix and Graeme Horne's braces were good too. However our defense still looked a bit weak; some of their tries were pretty soft. This is something that needs to be addressed before our game against St Helens on Friday week. 

One player who had a brilliant game on Saturday but seems to have been completely ignored by  reporters and fans alike was Graeme Horne. I'm not ashamed to tell you that when I saw him listed at centre on the team sheet I worried, especially as his wing partner was David Hodgson. It turns out I had nothing to be worried about as he was great; scoring two tries. The second of which was probably the best try of the match. 

Another player who had a great game - and who I thought should have been man of the match - was Scott Grix. (You knew this was coming didn't you?!) Another solid performance from Grixy, even after going off injured! Apart from when he didn't attempt a try saving tackle on Jake Webster I couldn't fault his performance. Two tries and five goals with a dodgy shoulder. His goal kicking has improved enormously since the last time he did our conversions.  

Overall, I can't say it was one of the best Huddersfield performances I've seen all year but it got us the two points and that's all the matters. A lot of improvement is needed, not only performance wise but discipline wise too for our trip to Widnes to play St Helens in a couple of weeks time. The week off should do the players good and hopefully we'll have a few injured troops back for that game. 

Well done to all my boys, especially the young ones who all played their hearts out.

Nearly but not quite.

The words that have been so apt for Huddersfield over the past few years. I fear that is what this year will be described as too. We were knocked out of the Challenge Cup by Castleford earlier today (Sunday), a competition that many of us Giants' fans thought we had a chance of winning. Especially as the league has slipped out of our grasp over the past few weeks.

I went to the PROBIZ Coliseum - as it's now known - today full of optimism. Confidence wouldn't have been the appropriate word as I didn't have bucket loads of confidence in getting the victory. A lot of us travelled the short distance to Castleford; the singing was great, from both sets of fans. The official attendance was only 6,336 - that was pretty surprising for someone who was stood in the ground. It felt like there were so many more people there, it looked like it too. Credit must go to both sets of fans for creating such a good atmosphere for the entirety of the match. 

Castleford fully deserved their victory. They were the much better side throughout, even through my claret and gold tinted specs (well, my aviators!). Yes a few decisions didn't go our way but we got some decisions that we didn't deserve too. Bentham will have better games I'm sure but it would be cowardly to blame him for our defeat. More so if you try and blame Danny Brough for missing those decisive kicks, if we'd have played well enough we wouldn't have needed those kicks to win the match. 

Our players looked gutted at the end of the match, I was gutted too. We were all gutted. I shed a tear or two, but it wasn't just over how gutted I was over being knocked out of the competition, it was also over how happy the Castleford players, and fans, were. You could see how much it meant to them. I spoke to a few Castleford fans on the way out, congratulated them and wished them well for the rest of the season, in both the Challenge Cup and the league. If you weren't one of them, but you're a Castleford fan reading this, that goes to you too. I seriously hope you win the whole thing as I always support the team who knocked us out of the comp. 

I think Nathan Brown summed up the whole match with this "At the end of the day, we could have given ourselves a better shot." We lost to the better team on the day. Hopefully the Giants can kick on and have a shot at the Grand Final this year. I hate to say it but I think it'll be another year of nearly but not quite for us. 

Hiatus

I'm a tad bored of posting so often at the minute as I never have the time to do much else. I'm thinking about what I can do in the future to liven it up a bit and get more page views. I don't get enough page views to continue putting as much work into my blog as I have been doing. Sorry if you're a faithful reader! Enjoy your rugby league... 

Round 15 Preview – Monday 30th May 2011

Wigan Warriors v Hull KR;

Venue: DW Stadium, Wigan

KO: 18:30pm

Referee: P Bentham (VR- B Thaler)

Sky Sports 1

Teams;

Wigan (17 from): S. Tomkins, Goulding, Carmont, Richards, Deacon, Leuluai, McIlorum, Coley, J. Tomkins, O'Loughlin, Prescott, Lima, Hoffman, Finch, Mossop, Farrell, Tuson, Charnley, Hughes

Hull KR (17 from): Briscoe, Cook, Cockayne, Clinton, Dobson, Fox, Fisher, Galea, Green, Hodgson, Lovegrove, Latus, Murrell, Netherton, Vella, Wheeldon, Webster, Welham, Watts.

Wigan have beaten Hull KR in the past six Super League matches between the two sides and they’ll be hoping to keep that winning run going on Monday night.

Sam Tomkins, who was infamously knocked out in the Challenge Cup match versus Bradford last weekend, should be passed fit to play. Also, George Carmont should have shaken off the knock that kept him out of last weekend’s match. I’m lost for any important Hull KR team news, sorry.

I like these Bank Holiday Monday sky games, lets hope it’s a good game. Good luck and enjoy.

Round 15 - Sunday 29th May 2011

Hull FC v Huddersfield Giants;

Venue: KC Stadium, Hull

KO: 12:30pm

Referee: T Alibert

Sky Sports 1

Teams;

Hull FC (17 from): Briscoe, Dowes, Fitzgibbon, Gleeson, Horne, Houghton, Lauaki, Manu, Moa, Obst, O'Meley, Phelps, Radford, Sharp, Tickle, Turner, Westerman, Whiting, Yeaman

Huddersfield (17 from): Grix, Lawrence, Cudjoe, Gilmour, Hodgson, Brown, Brough, Crabtree, Robinson, Griffin, Fa'alogo, Faiumu, Lunt, Mason, Raleigh, Kirmond, Patrick, Horne, McGillvary

High flying Huddersfield travel to the east riding of Yorkshire on Sunday to play the in form Hull FC.

Richard Agar has made two changes for the match bringing Sam Obst and Craig Fitzgibbon back into the squad after they sat out last weekend’s Challenge Cup win over Widnes.

David Fa’alogo is back for the Giants! (Woo, I never thought I’d see the day!) Hopefully he will stay fit for the rest of the season; he’s too good a player to be sat on the sidelines. Andy Raleigh is also back in the squad, he likes to make an impression when played, he really wants a certain position in the first team. Luke O’Donnell and Joe Wardle are both still out with their hamstring injuries.

Huddersfield to win, hopefully! Sure to be a good match.

Castleford Tigers v Harlequins RL;

Venue: PROBIZ Coliseum, Castleford (The Jungle)

KO: 15:30

Referee: R Hicks

Teams;

Castleford (17 from): Arundel, Chase, Clark, Dixon, Emmitt, Ferres, Fozzard, Hudson, Isa, Jones, Massey, Mathers, Milner, Orr, Owen, Snitch, Thompson, Walker, Widders

Harlequins (17 from): Ambler, Bailey, Bolger, Burnett, Calderwood, Clubb, Mitchell, Ellis, Gale, Pryce, Koupartisas, Krasniqi, Melling, O'Callaghan, Randall, Riley, Temata, Ward, Wilkes

I hope Castleford never need a one pointer to win a match ever again, that goes for Wakefield too after last week’s fiasco! Castleford are now 6^th in the league despite being table toppers earlier on in the season, they seemed to hit a bit of a lull in Super League form over Easter. They haven’t won a Super League match since April 10^th.

Harlequins themselves have also topped the Engage Super League table this season, but their decline happened much sooner and they now lie in 11^th place. The last time the two sides met Harlequins came back to draw with Castleford 26 all.

Jonathan Walker and Stuart Jones are set to return for Castleford in this match. The former has been out with a knee injury since February.

Chris Riley will make his debut for Harlequins after signing, on loan, from Warrington earlier this week. Karl Pryce and Lee Mitchell are also set to return after being cup tied last weekend. They will be without Luke Dorn and David Howell, however, as they were both injured in last weekend’s game.

Castleford are clearly wanting a big crowd for this match as they have introduced a buy one get one free offer.  (Sorry, but by the time this is published that offer will have ended!) I’ve got to go for the Castleford win.

Wakefield Trinity Wildcats v Catalan Dragons;

Venue: The Hearwell Stadium, Wakefield (I have no idea what it’s called these days)

KO: 15:30pm

Referee: T Roby

Teams:

Wakefield (17 from): Blaymire, Murphy, Korkidas, King, Henderson, Morrison, Lee, P. Johnson, Dean, Morton, Mariano, Howarth, Veivers, Davey, Higgins, Wildie, G. Johnson, Amor, McCarthy

Catalan (17 from): Greenshields, Blanch, Sa, Bosc, Dureau, Ferriol, Henderson, Raguin, Mounis, Baile, Millard, Vaccari, Simon, Martins, Fakir, Paea, Baitieri, Pelissier, Pala.

Wakefield’s new owners are certainly flashing the cash! I have seen their little advertisement on ITV1 twice already this afternoon. It is highly amusing and I hope it isn’t just Yorkshire that gets it, otherwise everyone else is missing out on the fun!

John Kear has named Chris Dean, Matt Blaymire, Liam Higgins and Tyrone McCarthy in his squad for this match. The latter two were cup tied so missed last weekend’s challenge cup loss to Castleford. Their new signing Jarrod Hickey will not play as he only landed in the UK on Thursday afternoon; Julien Rinaldi won’t play either due to a shoulder injury.

Catalans are without six players through injury. They are Remi Casty, Ben Farrar, Steve Menzies, Vincent Duport, Cyrille Gossard and newest addition to their list, Cyril Stacul. Clint Greenshields is set to return for the French outfit.

Bradford Bulls v Salford City Reds;

Venue: Grattan Stadium, Bradford (Odsal)

KO: 15:00pm

Referee: R Silverwood

Teams;

Bradford (17 from): Ah Van, Briggs, Burgess, Crookes, Diskin, Elima, Hargreaves, Herbert, Jeffries, Kopczak, Langley, L'Estrange, Lynch, Olbison, Platt, Royston, Sibbit, Sykes, Whitehead

Salford (17 from): Patten, Broughton, Nero, Jewitt, Clay, Ratchford, Holdsworth, Cashmere, Henry, Boyle, Neal, L. Adamson, Anderson, Smith, Sneyd, Gleeson, Sidlow, Paleaaesina, Wild

Both sides got knocked out of the Challenge Cup last weekend after their defeats to Wigan and Hull KR respectively.

Bradford put in a much improved display last weekend after some horrendous performances over the past few weeks. They only lost by four points, to a Wigan team who had numerical advantage for the majority of the game.

The home side will be without Gareth Raynor who was sent off last weekend for a reckless tackle on Wigan’s Sam Tomkins. Paul Sykes and Marc Herbert are both set to return after recovering from their hamstring injuries.

Mark Henry returns for Salford. They’re hoping that they can do the double over Bradford after humiliating them the last time they met in April. They won that match 56-16.

Bradford seem to be back with it at the moment and they’ll have a lot of confidence, despite losing, last weekend. I’ll go with them for the win. 

Round 15 – Friday 27th May 2011.

St Helens v Crusaders RL;

Venue: Stobart Stadium Halton (Widnes)

KO: 20:00

Referee: B Thaler

Teams:

St Helens (17 from): Wellens, Gardner, Shenton, Soliola, Meli, Eastmond, Perry, Roby, Graham, Wilkin, McCarthy-Scarsbrook, Ashurst, Dixon, Lomax, Magennis, Foster, Gaskell, Makinson, Hale

Crusaders RL (17 from): Schifcofske, Mellars, Reardon, Witt, Sammut, O'Hara, Withers, Bryant, Cahill, Chan, Winternstein, James, Flower, Hanbury, Kear, White, Moore, Lupton, Tansey

Five first teamers are set to return to Saints’ side for this match. Presumably we can stop complaining about the injuries now seeing as their injury list isn’t that bad anymore? Ah, no, I thought not. I’ll refrain from the Scouse jokes. Those five players are Kyle Eastmond, Josh Perry, Andrew Dixon, Jonny Lomax and Lee Gaskell.

Crusaders didn’t play last weekend as they were knocked out of the Challenge Cup in the 4^th round. You can take that as a positive or a negative. Positive being; they could rest up and have a break after 15 matches or the negative loss of momentum, maybe it would be better playing every week? I’d say it was a positive, let’s face it; Crusaders don’t really have much form to lose (or build on!) anyway. They will be without Gareth Thomas for the next couple of weeks as he has a neck injury but Lincoln Withers and Jason Chan should return.

St Helens’ thrashed Featherstone 70-0 last weekend so they didn’t really have a “game” so to speak, although I am told that Fev held their own for sometime in the first half.  I expect St Helens to win.

Leeds Rhinos v Warrington Wolves;

Venue: Headingley Carnegie Stadium, Leeds

KO: 20:00

Referee: J Child (VR- R Silverwood)

Sky Sports 2

Teams;

Leeds (17 from): Webb, Smith, Delaney, Hall, McGuire, Burrow, Leuluai, Buderus, Peacock, Jones-Buchanan, Ablett, Sinfield, Lauitiiti, Bailey, Kirke, Hauraki, Pitts, McShane, Hardaker

Warrington (17 from): Atkins, Blythe, Bridge, Briers, Carvell, Clarke, Cooper, Grix, Higham, Hodgson, King, J. Monaghan, M. Monaghan, Morley, Myler, Solomona, Westwood, Williams, Wood

Well, what a match we have in prospect! I hope it lives up to all of our expectations. 

Warrington are on fire at the moment, scoring 50+ points is simply the norm for them, especially in recent weeks. I’d hate to burst Warrington’s bubble, and no disrespect to the teams they have beaten, but they haven’t really played any amazing teams over the past few weeks have they? (This isn’t a dig by the way, many of you will know that I have a soft spot for Wire) I doubt tomorrow’s game is going to be a walkover for either side.

There’s been some big positives injury wise for both sides this week. Brett Hodgson and Richie Myler are set to return for Warrington in this match. Hodgson got injured two weeks ago with a back spasm and missed last week’s Challenge Cup game as a precaution, whereas Myler has been out since Good Friday with a fractured cheek bone. However, Gareth O’Brien, who has played in Myler’s absence, was injured against Swinton last week and is thought to be out for the rest of the season.

Leeds should welcome back Brent Webb and Danny McGuire for this match. Both of whom were injured in the Challenge Cup 4^th round match against Crusaders three weeks ago.

I’m going to go for Leeds in this match. Simply because they have good form at the minute, obviously Warrington have too, but closer matches often help how you play as a team. It’s going to be a brilliant game and I simply cannot wait!

Mid Week Round Up; Wednesday 25th May 2011.

So, this is my first mid week round up of #rugbyleague on the blog. I love writing and seeing as I have some (if only a little) time off over the next few weeks I thought it would be a good time to start it. I’m going to do a run down over the top stories in rugby league. The majority will be from Super League but I'll try and add some other stuff too! 

We had the Challenge Cup 5^th Round this weekend and as I didn’t get the chance to do a review here are the Challenge Cup quarter final matches.

Warrington Wolves v Wigan Warriors - BBC 4:30pm 230711

Castleford Tigers v Huddersfield Giants

Hull FC v Leeds Rhinos - BBC 3:30pm 240711

St Helens v Hull KR

They’re to be played the weekend of the 23^rd and 24^th July. 

I have finally seen the infamous Sam Tomkins - Gareth Raynor incident . I am 99.9% sure that he was unconscious, his eyes were so scary. In my opinion, all those comments that were made saying things along the lines of “he had it coming”, “he deserved it”, etc were out of order. I know some of the comments were made spur of the moment and on retrospect a lot of them realised and apologised. No matter how much you dislike someone you shouldn’t wish harm on them! Gareth Raynor was given a two match ban.

Talking of Sam Tomkins, him along with his fellow Wigan teammates have been banned from their new favourite past time, planking. Although they weren’t really doing anything dangerous it is a risk to them, and anyone doing it as there has been at least one publicised death from it. 

It was announced yesterday that Keith Senior will miss the rest of the season through a serious knee injury. He has played in every Super League season and still plays as though he is in his teens! I wish him best of luck with his operation and I hope he’s playing Super League next season! Get him re-signed Leeds, even if it’s only for one year!

Willie Mason has gone to Rugby Union after being released by Hull KR last week. What a joke that was. He was named in the Barbarians team yesterday and also signed for Toulon, the team he was linked with during his short stay in East Hull. Good luck to him.

Warrington’s Chris Riley, who has seemingly lost his place in the first team this season, has gone to Harlequins on loan. It’s for a month and he should add some pace to their wing, as well as being able to play first team rugby. Fellow Warrington player Lee Mitchell's contract has been extended for a month. 

Crusaders’ half back Rhys Hanbury has signed a 3 year deal which will keep him in Wales until 2014.

Catalans have a new player to add to their injury list; that being Cyril Stacul who broke his ankle during their loss to Huddersfield on Sunday. He went down unchallenged after collecting a kick. 

Match official appointments for the weekend were released like usual yesterday, if you are interested in referees, touch judges, etc for non Super League matches, visit the RFL website  where they are all listed in full.

Friday 27^th May;

Leeds v Warrington – J Child  (VR- R Silverwood)

St Helens v Crusaders – B Thaler

Sunday 29^th May;

Castleford v Harlequins – R Hicks

Hull FC v Huddersfield – T Alibert (VR- P Bentham)

Wakefield v Catalans – T Roby

Bradford v Salford – R Silverwood

Monday 30^th May;

Wigan v Hull KR – P Bentham (VR- B Thaler)


Queensland have just beaten their rivals New South Wales in the first State of Origin match of the series. The final score was 16-12, Billy Slater scoring the match winning try! 


Huddersfield Giants have just announced that Nathan Brown will be their coach for at least another year as he has signed a one year contract extension. 

Thank you for reading the new feature, I hope you’ve enjoyed it! Friday’s match previews will be up tomorrow, probably in the morning as I have an exam tomorrow afternoon!

Hannah x