No danger of Brown getting carried away

The Giants took advantage of the defeats by Warrington and Wigan to go top thanks to a 32-14 victory over struggling Wakefield at the Rapid Solicitors Stadium, but Brown was not entirely satisfied with his team’s display.

“We don’t want to get carried away,” he said. “It’s a long year.

“We don’t need to go table-watching, we need to learn the lessons from what we didn’t do so well at Wakefield.

“In the first half we were really good. We’d done all the hard work into the wind and to come in at 18-4 was pleasing.

“With a big breeze and Danny Brough in our side, we should have really finished it off early in the second half, but our discipline was disgraceful.

“We kept inviting them into the contest and they were happy to accept the challenge.”

Winger Jermaine McGillvary gave the visitors a dream start with two tries in the first quarter and centre Joe Wardle touched down twice in the second half, but Wakefield winger Ben Cockayne kept his team firmly in the hunt with a hat-trick of tries.

“We felt we pushed them,” said Wildcats coach Richard Agar, whose has seen his side side lose their last four matches.

“We thought when we were getting close, there were a couple of big swings in the game.

“Huddersfield don’t normally give you an awful lot, but today I thought they gave us an opportunity and a chance.

“There was a period in the second half when we had the momentum and we looked like we could take it.

“I’m really encouraged by lots of aspects of our performance.

“We let in a couple of soft tries that were avoidable and, when Huddersfield had to defend their tryline, they probably did it better than we did.

“We’re learning about each other all the time and I don’t think we’re too far away now.

“I think our performances show that we’ll get some wins.”

Wakefield 14 Huddersfield 32

Captain Kevin Brown helped quell a Wakefield fightback and send Huddersfield Giants to the top of Super League.

The Giants looked ragged when Trinity winger Ben Cockayne completed a hat-trick of tries with 25 minutes to go. Suddenly from 18-4, Wakefield – who had lost their last three games – were back in the game at 18-14 and a shock looked on the cards.

But in a game littered with penalties, both sides reached double figures, Brown stepped forward, creating two tries for Joe Wardle and picking up another try for himself as Giants took advantage of defeats for Warrington and Wigan to top Super League.

Trinity started with the same match 17 which lost 14-10 at Hull FC last week, but there were surprise ommisions in the Giants line-up with no Luke Robinson or Luke George.

That meant no Belle Vue return for George – the winger already having chalked up two hat-tricks for the Giants so far this season – but there was still plenty of familiar faces.

Both sides boasted four players who had each donned the opposition’s colours in their careers. Wakefield included Steve Southern, Danny Kirmond, Kyle Wood and Oli Wilkes, while Huddersfield named Aaron Murphy, Scott Grix, Danny Brough and Tommy Lee.

And it was Brough who had a major part in the opening try on his return to Belle Vue. He shrugged off an attempted tackle, before darting right to pick out Leroy Cudjoe, and winger Jermaine McGillvary sauntered over in the corner.

Roared on by a sun-bathed Belle Vue crowd, Wakefield replied with an intense period of pressure. Kirmond was halted in his tracks yards from the line, after a crunching tackle from Grix, and even the might of Ali Lauitiiti failed to break the Giants defence.

The Wildcats were unable to make their possession pay as the visitors showed their cutting edge and again it came from the Cudjoe-McGillvary partnership on the right flank.

Centre Cudjoe attracted several would-be tacklers as they tried to ground him, but he flicked the ball out wide having created the gap for McGillvary to squeeze over for a Brough-converted try.

A length-of-field move started by Jason Chan nearly climaxed with a Murphy try, but referee James Child halted play for a forward pass, while at the other end the official deemed that Tim Smith had not grounded the ball as Trinity pushed to get back into the match.

But the try the hosts had been threatening finally arrived, and it took a superb drilled pass from stand-off Isaac John to pick out winger Cockayne. He still had plenty to do, but stepped inside to find a gap, before crashing over.

Cockayne failed to convert his own try, and the Giants increased their advantage before the break.

Good hands from Grix and Chan saw the Giants open up Wakefield down the centre and Larne Patrick was there to finish off the move, Brough converting and adding a further penalty to see Huddersfield lead 18-4.

A try from Cockayne in the 45th minute reduced the arrears, although Smith was unable to add the extras, then Cudjoe had to be alert to deny John after he dummied his way through.

News was filtering through to Belle Vue that Wigan had lost to Widnes, meaning a Giants win would see the West Yorkshire club go top of the table.

But this result was still in the balance after a superb fightback from Wakefield, John again supplying the ball for Cockayne to race over for his hat-trick.

Stand-off John became the third Trinity player to attempt a conversion, and this time was successful to trail 18-14 with 25 minutes remaining.

This was a challenge for Huddersfield, but up stepped Brown as the visitors were able to find another gear.

First he fired a low ball out to Wardle, who strolled through a huge gap in the home defence, before dummying his way over himself for a try.

Then the Huddersfield captain made the most of a fortunate turnover in possession to again feed Wardle, who cantered over in the left-hand corner.

Brough, on the end of terrace abuse on his Wakefield return, managed to kick one of the three conversion attempts to clinch a 32-14 victory.

Wakefield Trinity Wildcats: Mathers, Fox, Collis, Mellars, Cockayne, John, Smith, Raleigh, Aiton, Southern, Kirmond, Lauitiiti, Washbrook. Substitutes: Wood, Walshaw, Johnson, Wilkes.

Huddersfield Giants: Eden, McGillvary, Cudjoe, Wardle, Murphy, Grix, Brough, Crabtree, Lee, Gilmour, Chan, Farbank, Brown. Substitutes: Lunt, Patrick, Lawrence, Faiumu.

Referee: J Child (RFL).