Hull Kingston Rovers 0 Huddersfield Giants 30: Hodgson's hat-trick condemns Hull KR to whitewash

The winger, born and raised close to Rovers' Craven Park ground, included a spectacular 90-metre interception in his treble as Huddersfield responded after last week's narrow loss at Hull FC.

But coach Nathan Brown was not overly pleased by his side's performance despite shutting out their error-ridden hosts, citing the epic Warrington versus Wigan tussle on Saturday night as the levels they need to reach.

"The effort or desire to get our plays right wasn't quite good enough," he said.

"It's good to nil someone but by no means did I think it was an outstanding performance.

"Our defence was reasonable but, particularly in the second half, I thought we fluffed around a little bit in attack.

"When you watched the standard of the game the other night you realise some sides have made big improvements this year.

"There's going to be some that go backwards and the key for us to make sure we go in the right direction; we need to pick up a little bit on those teams."

How Rovers chief Justin Morgan would have liked the luxury of being able to pick over his side in such a fashion but the East Yorkshire team, who finished fourth just behind Huddersfield last season, were yesterday woefully short of any class or conviction.

"We didn't start well, didn't get any better and progressively got worse," he said.

"We didn't show any patience and pushed the pass with all the good ball and position we had while we couldn't defend our areas either."

Such was the lameness of their football, poor Joel Clinton must have considered turning around, heading straight out of Craven Park and getting the next flight back to Australia.

Hull KR unveiled their new signing from Brisbane Broncos at half-time yesterday but the one-time Australia Test prop will have been as sickened as the disillusioned home crowd.

On the back of a heavy loss at Wigan last week, the shamblic hosts were 18-0 down inside the opening half-hour despite having most of the territory.

Rovers wasted an early opportunity after Michael Dobson linked with Jake Webster only to force a pass which sailed behind Peter Fox into touch. It set the tone for their afternoon.

Brett Hodgson produced a brilliant 40/20 to create Huddersfield's first attacking position and they made the most of it.

Darell Griffin surged close direct from the scrum before poor defence allowed Shaun Lunt to nip over for the easiest of tries.

Captain Brett Hodgson – returning after missing the Hull game with a back injury – converted before Ben Cockayne then made a real mess of a harmless long kick downfield from Luke Robinson. The ball bounced off the full-back's boot as he strolled back and bent down to pick up, shooting dead for a drop out, the sort of hopeless gaffe that would blight his side for the majority of the contest.

Rovers should have responded in the 18th minute after Matt Cook brushed off Robinson and and Dobson set Webster racing clear down the middle.

Leroy Cudjoe wrapped up the stand-off but a quick play-the-ball saw play shifted right and Clint Newton had the chance to put Fox in again but an awful pass forced the winger to slow his run giving Michael Lawrence just enough time to get across and bundle the England man into touch.

Rovers continued to dominate field position but always failed to strike, Dobson dropping on the first tackle after a third successive penalty in good position.

In only their second real attack on 22 minutes, Brett Hodgson carved out a second try for his namesake, exposing more poor Rovers defence and converting from the touchline to make it

12-0.

They extended that lead soon after when England prop Eorl Crabtree bulldozed his way up the middle on halfway, scattering more tame defenders to off-load to Brett Hodgson who quickly found Larne Patrick.

The replacement prop then showed terrific pace to get clear before shrugging off a limp attempted tackle from Cockayne to get over.

Rovers, handing former Leeds centre Mike Ratu his debut after Cockayne switched to full-back to replace the injured Shaun Briscoe, had a perfect chance to hit back but Webster ignored an overlap to aim a wasteful kick down Brett Hodgson's throat.

Mistakes continued at apace on the heavy pitch, sodden from melted snow, which home fans must have wished had not passed a morning inspection.

Huddersfield absorbed plenty more pressure early in the second half with both Robinson and David Hodgson making long-distance breaks to relieve the visitors.

It was the latter who picked off Dobson's wayward pass on 55 minutes to race in almost from his own line and the ex-Wigan winger completed his hat-trick when Lee Glimour dummied his way down the left.

Brett Hodgson, whose creative edge proved so crucial, carved out their fifth try for Cudjoe with two minutes remaining.

Hull KR: Cockayne; Fox, Ratu, Welham, Colbon; Webster, Dobson; Lovegrove, Murrell, Vella, Newton, Netherton, Cooke. Substitutes: Watts, Wheeldon, Cook, Fisher.

Huddersfield: B Hodgson; Cudjoe, Lolesi, Lawrence, D Hodgson; Brown, Robinson; Griffin, Lunt, Raleigh, Gilmour, Horne, Faiumu. Substitutes: Crabtree, Fa'alogo, Grix, Patrick.

Referee: B Thaler (Wakefield).

MATCH FOCUS

Hero: Brett Hodgson

Namesake David got a hat-trick of tries but it was the reigning Man of Steel who proved the class act with his customary display of intelligence and leadership.

Villain: Ben Cockayne

The majority of Rovers' players endured miserable afternoons but the nervy full-back had a particularly torrid time with his mistakes early on proving costly.

Key moment

55th minute: David Hodgson's long-range interception try made sure of the result for the visitors, making it 22-0, although realistically you sensed Rovers were never likely to threaten given their own consistent shoddiness.

Verdict

Giants easily got the points without ever having to really stretch themselves, a sign of how desperatrely poor Hull KR were in a torrid 80 minutes.

Next game

Hull KR – Castleford (a) Feb 27 6.15pm

Giants – Warrington (h) Feb 28, 3pm

Quote of the day

I'm going to have to delve very deep to find some; there's not a huge amount of positives from that.

– Hull KR coach Justin Morgan is honest assessment when asked if he can take any plus points.