A tremendous defensive effort, which kept the visiting Huddersfield Giants pointless for over sixty-five minutes in Thursday evening’s Round 5 Super League fixture, was the crux to their first league win of the season, which lifted them off the bottom of the table, and above the hapless Giants, to join Catalans and Castleford in joint ninth.
It is true that the visitors have taken a significant hit from injuries recently, with a proportion of their spine out of action for several weeks, but that is the nature of sport, and it could also be argued that several of Salford’s absentees were missing, in part, for the very same reason.
What is indisputable is the fact that on four occasions in the first half, the Giants had protracted periods of possession in the Salford twenty metre area, with three or four sets of six, resulting from penalties, set restarts, and goal-line drop-outs. What is more, so tight was the Red Devils’ defence on each occasion, they very seldom looked likely to break it. Indeed, viewing it from the West Stand, the Salford line looked nigh impregnable, and the numbering up seemed spot-on.
Whilst the forwards blocked the middle magnificently, the defence of the backs was equal to anything that came their way, with the half-backs, in particular, being eye-catching in this. Man-of-the-Match, Jayden Nikorima timed a run at a Giants’ inside back to snuff out one threatening build up, to perfection.
Chris Atkin, for his part, was responsible for two try saving tackles in that early period, the second of which was a total mismatch of size, but he got his technique just right, and the possibility of a score was eliminated. By far, his most noteworthy defensive contribution, however, was his incorporating into a tackle on Halsall, four minutes into the second half, following a high kick, his positioning of his hand on the outer side of the ball, thus preventing the winger from grounding it, as the video referee confirmed.
Huddersfield’s kicking was by far the best aspect of their game, especially in the second half, when two or three troublesome ones paid dividends for them. It was probably inevitable that they would eventually cross for a couple of tries, which they did on 67 and 75 minutes.
On the occasions they had the ball in good field position, the Red Devils’ attack also looked impressive, and the team as a whole looked really cohesive together – a sign that they are getting back up to speed, after struggling to do so in the early matches. This was where Nikorima really came into own, and he took up the vacant mantle of playmaker, and performed in the role with distinction.
He revelled in the freedom he had made for himself, on 58 mins, when he scored a great individual try for himself, direct from the scrum, in which he made a couple of Giants defenders look rather foolish. He caused further problems for them later with a break down the right flank, but unfortunately this failed to bring about a score.
It was, though, his contribution to two of the first half tries which was so crucial, with the first of these seeing him make the first carry on the last of a seven-tackle set, before feeding that, now, stalwart of our pack, Chris Hill, who, in turn, handed on to the ever-improving dynamo that is Harvey Wilson to score to the right of the posts, on 20 mins.
Seven minutes later, he first set-up and then supported a great break from Ethan Ryan from within his own twenty, to fleet-foot it to the post for the first of his brace. Ryan Brierley then added to these two of his three successful goal-kicks, after his first attempt for Esan Marsters’s opener – of similar ilk to his opening score the previous week – fell short.
Not to be outdone, halfback partner Atkin made his own contribution to what, for some of the time, could be described as a rout. On 32 mins, he surprised many by putting in an extremely helpful 40-20, and came close on 78 mins to adding to the Reds’ final tally with a long distance break, only to be caught by Swift’s cover tackle from the opposite wing.
So with progress into the quarter-finals of the Challenge Cup, last week being followed up by the acquisition of two league points, six days later, the mood around the stadium has lifted considerably. The players now have a ten-day break before they face their next challenge away at Wigan. They have clearly made significant strides in the past couple of weeks, so it will be interesting to see how they fare, on Sunday week. against the much sterner opposition of the Warriors.
