Batley Bulldogs 4 Huddersfield Giants 13: Lunt rescues Huddersfield from Cup upset at battling Bulldogs

The Championship side, after a performance full of passion, charisma and no little quality, led 4-0 until shortly before the hour mark in another pulsating cup tie this weekend.

Even going up the famous Mount Pleasant slope in the second half they showed no signs of slacking off and it needed Lunt – the ex-England hooker – to hunt out a brace of predatory scores to finally break their resolve.

In many of their Super League games so far this season, high-flying Huddersfield will not have encountered as physical and demanding contest as yesterday’s fourth-round clash which proved a great advert for Championship football.

Batley, who almost knocked out London Broncos here last season and pushed Huddersfield close two years ago, were relentless from the first set until the last.

They were outstanding as they utterly dominated the visibly struggling visitors down the hill.

Wily coach John Kear – no stranger to Challenge Cup shocks after winning the famous competition with Sheffield Eagles and Hull FC – gave his side a game plan which they administered almost to perfection.

Dogged Batley forced four drop-outs in the first half alone, continually pushed back the visitors with some aggressive defence and showed real discipline with the manner in which they retained the ball.

The nagging feeling was they really should have garnered more from all their exploits than a 4-0 interval lead, winger Gareth Potts having latched onto Paul Mennell’s clever lofted kick to the corner in the 39th minute.

There was a sense that Huddersfield, with the likes of England prop Eorl Crabtree, the in-form strong-running Brett Ferres and, of course, Danny Brough’s stellar kicking game, would simply overrun their foes in the second period and bully them into submission hurtling down that slanting pitch.

However, Kear’s side were insistent that they would finish what they had begun and so it was that, at the start of the second period, embattled Giants full-back Aaron Murphy found himself caught behind his own line yet again to concede a fifth straight drop-out.

Frustratingly, though, Batley just could not capitalise again which meant when some ill-discipline crept in, Lunt stayed alert to dummy over from close range at the other end in the 58th minute and he was over just three minutes later after a scruffy kick from Brough.

The Giants converted to make it 10-4 but it did not signal a home capitulation.

Huddersfield coach Paul Anderson said: “What do you think we were expecting, Batley to come here and roll over?

“Have you ever seen a John Kear team fall down? No.

“Batley came to challenge us which we knew they would do.

“I thought they played very, very well.

“What Batley did was they challenged us in many, many areas but we came up with some answers and found a way to win.

“It was a good old-fashioned Challenge Cup game where one team came to give it to another.

“I don’t think through the whole of the game I was ever worried we were going to lose but Batley were outstanding.

“They pushed a top-two Super League team to the end and come out of it with a hell of a lot of credit.

“Fair play to them but the main thing is we’re in the draw.”

It would be remiss to single anyone out but Jason Walton underlined why he is one of the Championship’s leading players with a rugged display at centre where he thrived on muscling up against the likes of Ferres and Brough.

Hooker George Flanagan kept Huddersfield guessing around the ruck and Mennell continued that when he arrived to replace him while the huge prop Alex Rowe came up with some rattling hits.

Huddersfield had no real attacking chance of note until the 37th minute when Lunt seemed to have scrambled over.

However, not only did Batley deny him getting the ball down, a four-man tackle involving Ben Black, Miles Greenwood, Gareth Potts and Alex Bretherton drove him right back over the dead-ball line to ensure the hosts regained possession.

Such vigorous teamwork could be found all over the pitch as Batley continually got numbers into the tackle to thwart Huddersfield’s key men with Brough becoming particularly erratic at one point and Joe Wardle having to depart with a rib injury.

However, the Super League side – who were only missing Luke Robinson, Jason Chan and Dale Ferguson from their regular squad – eventually managed to eke out the win as Lunt took his tally to seven tries in five games.

“Shaun Lunt’s a good player and good players play well in big matches,” said Anderson, about the ex-Leeds Rhinos hooker.

“That’s what he’s done. There’s no bigger games than the Challenge Cup; if you’re thinking about next week instead of this you’re out of the cup but he delivered.”

However, Batley still had opportunities, Walton just losing control as he tried to stretch over and then Ben Black – who had kicked brilliantly – foolishly trying to put Potts down the right on the first tackle from an attacking 20m scrum.

The winger only ended up in touch but, such was Huddersfield’s concern, Brough slotted a drop goal in the 79th minute and, with Batley’s defence still harassing them, added a penalty in injury time.

Batley: Greenwood; Potts, Walton, Maun, Johnson; Black, Moore; Smith, Flanagan, Rowe, Bretherton Davies, Lindsay. Substitutes: Campbell. Mennell, Hirst, Walmsley.

Huddersfield: Murphy; McGillvary, Cudjoe, Wardle, Dawson; Grix, Brough; Crabtree, Lunt, Kopczak,Ferres, Lawrence, Cording. Substitutes: Faiumu, Patrick, Ta’ai, Johnson.

Referee: B Thaler (Wakefield).

Batley played like champions, enthuses Kear

COACH John Kear described his Batley Bulldogs side as “bloody champions” after they gave Super League Huddersfield Giants a real scare in the Tetley’s Challenge Cup, writes Dave Craven.

The part-timers had been on a nine-match unbeaten run in the Championship and they transformed that form into yesterday’s thrilling fourth-round tie at Mount Pleasant.

Heading towards the hour mark, Batley led 4-0 against Super League opponents who were packed with international quality.

They were eventually defeated 13-4 after Huddersfield hooker Shaun Lunt grabbed a quickfire brace but Kear said: “You wouldn’t have been able to tell there was a division between us or that one was full-time and the other part-time.

“Our lads were working as hard at the end as they were at the beginning.

“They were superb and it was a great cup tie.

“We didn’t want to die wondering and we haven’t.

“The players have gone out there and thrown everything they possibly could at Huddersfield.

“We’ve lost 13 points to four but performed like bloody champions so I’m proud of them.”

The game was still in the balance until scrum-half Danny Brough – who helped Kear win the 2005 Challenge Cup while at Hull FC in 2005 – kicked a penalty in the 79th minute and then struck an injury-time drop goal.

Batley had missed a couple of gilt-edged chances shortly before, even going up the ground’s famous hill in the second half when Huddersfield were expected to show their strength.

“We lost a bit of cohesion and got a bit giddy,” admitted Kear.

“Their heads started to go but Broughy showed composure didn’t he by knocking the drop-goal over and that killed the game.

“We did contain him, though, generally.

“I know Broughy well and, so, our right side defence had a lot of work to do in training this week and a lot of work to do today. But they handled it quite well and what we planned we executed pretty well so that’s why we came so near. I’m just really chuffed that my players turned up like that.”