Bulls chop down Giants

Huddersfield Giants were brought crashing down to earth with a 28-18 defeat to West Yorkshire rivals Bradford Bulls on Sunday evening.

The Giants, fresh from beating St Helens to reach the Carnegie Challenge Cup final a week ago, were hit by a four-try burst from the Bulls in the first half.

Huddersfield fought back through tries from Scott Moore and Danny Kirmond late on, but the visitors held firm to claim a surprise victory at the Galpharm Stadium.

Chris Nero returned to haunt his former employers with two of Bradford's four tries, while Michael Platt and Paul Sykes also touched down and Paul Deacon kicked six goals.

All but four of the Bulls' points came during a scintillating first-half purple patch.

Their chances of reaching the top eight in the engage Super League, however, remain slim while Huddersfield, after winning their six previous league games to sit third, can put the loss down to a cup hangover.

Flowing

They had seen little sign of that in the early stages. Indeed, Huddersfield made a perfect start and pieced together a superb move to go ahead after two minutes.

Kevin Brown's bouncing kick was palmed back into play by David Hodgson and the ball was scooped up for Stephen Wild to find Brett Hodgson, who weaved his way over.

Brett Hodgson added the conversion and the Giants looked set to add to their lead as Jamahl Lolesi sent Luke Robinson clear but the scrum-half was caught close to the line.

Huddersfield's creativity was bettered by Bradford, who responded powerfully after being sparked into life by Platt, who scored after leaping high to take down a hanging cross-field kick from Sykes.

From then on the visitors looked a more confident outfit and they switched play from left to right and back again on one play to claim a second try, Glenn Morrison setting up Nero from a Dave Halley long pass.

A third try quickly followed as Rikki Sheriffe cut in from the right wing and Morrison sent Sykes over.

Bradford's determination was evident as Sam Burgess hit opposing prop Darrell Griffin with a ferocious tackle.

Brace

Nero then claimed his second after another good move involving Sykes and Steve Menzies to gives the Bulls a 24-6 lead at half-time.

Huddersfield's problems worsened as Moore was sin-binned early in the second half for a late challenge on Deacon. Bradford eased downfield and Deacon added two more points after another penalty was awarded in front of the posts for Griffin's off-the-ball tackle on Halley.

The Moore incident was also placed on report by referee Phil Bentham but the Giants held out for their 10 minutes with 12 men.

And Moore made an immediate impact on his return to the field as he ran up in support of a Brown break and scored by the posts.

The game became a bit fractious as Bradford tried to protect their lead and Benson was lenient when a scuffle broke out after Semi Tadulala tugged Eorl Crabtree's ponytail.

Huddersfield stepped up the pressure and got themselves back within eight points as Kirmond crashed over from close range and Brett Hodgson kicked his third goal.

The game was just beyond them, and Deacon wrapped up matters with a late penalty.