Super League: Wakefield step towards Super 8s and end Giants' hopes
Last Updated: 12/06/16 7:02pm
Huddersfield's hopes of making the Super 8s all but ended with a 10-2 loss to Wakefield at the John Smith's Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
Wakefield captain Danny Kirmond scored the only try of a subdued derby to all but secure his side's Super League top-eight spot, as they moved to sixth place with five rounds remaining.
At the same time Wakefield's victory went a long way to ending the Super 8s hopes of Kirmond's old club Huddersfield, who are second-to-last, above only Leeds on points difference.
The error-strewn game appeared certain to end try-less until Kirmond pounced on Liam Finn's delicate grubber to grab the all-important score in the 69th minute to clinch victory.
The Giants, despite the promptings of stand-off Danny Brough on his return from injury, rarely looked capable of ending their recent barren run.
Huddersfield's best spell came in the opening minutes when second rower Michael Lawrence was held up over the line and scrum-half Jamie Ellis was inches away from touching down on the back of Brough's grubber kick.
The home side had a let-off when winger Jermaine McGillvary lost the ball on his own line and Wakefield centre Bill Tupou pounced on it but referee Michael Woodhead ruled the Huddersfield player had made the ball dead.
The Giants then failed to make the most of a Brough 40-20 and they fell behind to a Liam Finn penalty at the beginning of the second quarter.
Huddersfield were forced into a re-shuffle when winger Aaron Murphy sustained a badly-cut head bravely diving out of his own in-goal area to prevent a goal-line drop-out
Inspired by his Magic Weekend heroics, Jacob Miller attempted an ambitious drop-goal attempt from half-way but was way off target to leave his side leading 2-0 at the break.
Brough brought Giants level 11 minutes into the second half with a penalty, but Finn made it 4-2 shortly afterwards after Huddersfield were caught offside on their own line.
That sparked Trinity into producing their most threatening spell of the game. Centre Reece Lyne was bundled into the corner flag and Huddersfield were forced to concede three drop-outs in quick succession before prop Mickael Simon was thrown back from the line.
Having withstood all that tremendous pressure, Huddersfield had a chance to level the scores once when Brough was taken out off the ball by winger Ben Jones-Bishop but the Scotland captain surprisingly missed the target with the penalty.
It proved irrelevant, though, when Kirmond, back from suspension, was the first to reach Finn's deft kick on the last tackle to score a try and Finn kicked his third goal to wrap up the scoring.
