Huddersfield 42-8 Hull KR: Giants move off the foot of Super League table
Last Updated: 22/03/19 11:34pm
Huddersfield Giants moved off the foot of the Super League standings with a 42-8 home demolition of Hull KR.
It was just a second top-flight triumph of the campaign for Simon Woolford's men, who celebrated an excellent evening's work by leapfrogging Wigan and Leeds in the standings.
The destruction was spearheaded by England winger Jermaine McGillvary and England Knights hooker Kruise Leeming, who both crossed twice in the seven-try rout.
In contrast, Hull KR looked completely off the pace and never appeared capable of matching their hosts' sizeable threat.
It was actually the visitors who started the contest the liveliest, forcing Huddersfield to drop-out three times from under their own posts in the first five minutes before Ryan Shaw gave his side the lead with a straight-forward penalty.
However, as soon as the Giants emerged from their initial slumbers, they began to take total control of the contest and had built up a 20-2 interval advantage.
Lee Gaskell opened the home side's account with a 10th-minute penalty, and four minutes later landed the first of his three first-half conversions after McGillvary's strong surge ripped open the Hull KR defence and paved the way for the supporting Leeming to finish off.
That lead was extended 13 minutes later when Leeming turned provider by dabbing the ball through for Oliver Roberts to pick up the pieces as the Robins defence hesitated.
The visiting defence was all at sea again soon after as they failed to deal with a Matt Frawley chip and Darnell McIntosh took full advantage to pounce.
The half-time break failed to knock the Giants out of their stride as they extended their lead within three minutes of the restart, Gaskell breaking away and feeding the alert Leeming to double his try tally on the night.
The influential half-back was also at the heart of Huddersfield's fifth try, sending out a long pass to Jordan Turner, who in turn immediately fed McGillvary to stroll over with ease.
If that had been easy, the England winger's next involvement was even more gift-wrapped, simply plucking the ball out of the air from a perfectly-weighted Frawley kick and going over as two mesmerised Hull KR defenders looked on spellbound.
Although Rovers were a deflated side, they refused to wave the white flag and Weller Hauraki gave the travelling supporters something to cheer in the 63rd minute by crashing over by the posts, with Shaw adding the extras.
But it was the Giants who almost inevitably finish on the front foot, with powerful prop Suaia Matagi powering over from close range to bring up the 40-point mark for Huddersfield for the first time this year.
Gaskell landed his sixth successful kick of the encounter to complete an impressive victory for the hosts.
