Saints’ rally wasn’t enough as they went down 16-12 to Huddersfield on Friday night.
Tries from Ben Barba and Luke Thompson saw Justin Holbrook’s men almost erase a 16 point deficit – but the damage had been been done in the first half.
The Giants hit the front in the fifth minute when they shifted the ball left for Darnell McIntosh to dive in the corner.
Danny Brough landed the conversion off the touchline and then added another in the 11th minute when Alex Mellor took a simple pass to score.
Saints followed up with a set on Giants’ line, but they couldn’t take advantage – and the visitors duly turned that defence into attack.
Barba couldn’t take Brough’s high ball and within a blink of an eye McIntosh was over in the corner for his second.
It was a three try salvo that Saints couldn’t recover from – but they did come close.
LMS’ cooly put Jonny Lomax through a gap before the stand-off turned it inside to Barba who made no mistake from distance.
And Saints almost scored again shortly afterwards but Jonny Lomax slipped a micro-second before he would have realised Fages on his way to the sticks.
Next time Saints had the opportunity to score they did – and it came in the 57th minute.
Barba forced a drop out from a chip on the last – and won a penalty after he was dragged into touch.
Luke Thompson then powered over on the charge.
Saints could smell blood but they spurned four sets in a row to get back on level terms.
That defensive effort buoyed the Giants too, and it meant Saints needed a final flourish to try and level matters.
They couldn’t catch a break though and Huddersfield held on.
Justin Holbrook gave his thoughts after Saints were beaten 16-12 by Huddersfield.
“Obviously we didn’t want to be so far down but I still thought we could come back and win the game,” he said. “We had too many tired bodies. We did as best as we could to put Sunday behind us and come and lift tonight but too many guys couldn’t get up for it.
“We had have a lot of mentally and physically tired boys out there and when you’re mentally tired you make dumb errors. We did that in the first 25 minutes again and it is something we need to fix.
“Sunday was always going to knock us around a bit. It took a few days to get over it and clear our heads. We came with the right intentions but unfortunately we made a slow start and were down 16-0. We were five cm off scoring from a kick off but somehow we knock the ball on trying to play it.
“You can’t take anything from Huddersfield, they deserved to win but I didn’t think they looked a threat in the second half. Yet, they did enough to beat us.
“We have to keep working hard and bounce back next week. But I was disappointed not to win tonight.”
He continued: “There were some positives. Luke Thompson and Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook were great. Louie has been great over the last month month too.
“The effort was there, we could have won, but it wasn’t good enough.”
Match Summary:
Saints:
Tries: Barba, Thompson
Goals: Richardson (2 from 2)
Giants:
Tries: McIntosh (2), Mellor
Goals: Brough (2 from 3)
Penalties Awarded:
Saints: 7
Giants: 4
HT: 6-16
FT: 12-16
REF: S. Mikalauskas
ATT: 8,979
Teams:
Saints:
23. Ben Barba; 2. Tommy Makinson, 30. Matty Costello, 4. Mark Percival, 5. Adam Swift; 1. Jonny Lomax, 18. Danny Richardson; 10. Kyle Amor, 9. James Roby, 16. Luke Thompson, 15. Morgan Knowles, 11. Zeb Taia, 12. Jon Wilkin.
Subs: 6. Theo Fages, 13. Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook, 14. Luke Douglas, 20. Matty Lees.
Giants:
15. Jordan Rankin; 2. Jermaine McGillvary, 3. Leroy Cudjoe, 4. Jordan Turner, 23. Darnell McIntosh; 6. Lee Gaskell, 7. Danny Brough; 35. Suaia Matagi, 21. Adam O’Brien, 17. Ukuma Taíai, 22. Alex Mellor, 16. Oliver Roberts, 14. Dale Ferguson.
Subs: 13. Ryan Hinchcliffe, 18. Paul Clough, 25. Colton Roche, 27. Matty English.
