Giants make Saints struggle

A largely reserve side of Huddersfield Giants led Super League leaders 10-0 before Saints eventually scraped a narrow 12-10 victory at Knowsley Road.

After knocking Saints out of the Challenge Cup semi-finals two weeks ago, the Giants had one eye on the next Saturday Wembley final - meaning coach Nathan Brown made wholesale changes.

Brown came under criticism after leaving out 11 of the players that beat Saints two weeks ago, but a second string side almost pulled off a huge shock that proved Brown right, and will give him huge confidence in his squad going forward.

The Giants defied belief as they ran in two tries in the opening eight minutes, but the hosts came back and a 64th-minute Francis Meli try ensured Mick Potter's men avoided a third consecutive defeat.

Wembley-bound Huddersfield outplayed their hosts for long periods of the match, but after narrowly missing out and losing for a second successive game, they slipped down to fourth in the Super League table.

Injury blow

The Giants were also dealt an injury blow as one of the few to be risked, second-rower Simon Finnigan, sustaining suspected knee ligament damage that makes him doubtful for the trip to Wembley.

Saints had captain Keiron Cunningham and inspirational scrum-half Sean Long back in the side, but they had not even touched the ball when the visitors took the lead.

Danny Kirmond got the ball back from the kick-off deep in Saints territory and lively hooker Shaun Lunt went through a gap in the home defence from dummy half inside the first set of tackles.

Winger Leroy Cudjoe added the conversion and increased his side's lead on eight minutes, finishing off some smart handling from impressive 18-year-old debutant full-back Elliott Hodgson at the corner for a second try.

The game was held up for four minutes for Kirmond to have treatment after going down awkwardly in a two-man tackle and the stoppage appeared to affect the cup finalists, who conceded a try within a minute of the resumption.

Breakthrough

Saints could not find a way through the hard-working Giants defence but the visitors were powerless to stop winger Ade Gardner taking Long's lofted kick to touch down on 19 minutes.

St Helens scored a second try after 46 minutes when Hodgson was adjudged, harshly perhaps, to have knocked on near his own line, and centre Matt Gidley demonstrated his class to slice through the Giants defence and touch down at the corner.

Lomax's conversion attempt struck an upright to leave Saints still trailing, but they finally stepped up the pressure, forcing a series of goal-line drop-outs until the visitors' defence eventually cracked.

Meli, whose hat-trick in the cup semi-final was all in vain, had two tries disallowed by video referee Steve Ganson before succeeding at the third attempt, taking Lomax's pass to crash over after 63 minutes.

Lomax again failed with the conversion but it was enough to see off the brave Giants.