Dope on the Rope : Sun Aug 09, 2009 5:30 pm
Great tactics by Nathan Brown must have taken inspiration from Ali`s first fight with George Foreman one of the hardest punchers in boxing history.
Huddersfield soaked up the pressure late on and then came off the ropes in the final round to score a knock out blow.
The game also blows Davids recent assertions about half backs only being able to operate behind a dominant pack
Robinson assumed control and dominance inside the first 5 minutes controlling the game and having a direct involvement in the first score
12 minutes in and Saints with the aid of easy penalties to march them down field without really asserting dominance score on the 12th tackle
4-4 and no one is really in the assendency
18 minutues in and Eastmond without the real aid of any forward dominance is urging Saints on and combining with Pryce they get over the line but cant score.
25 minutes in Huddersfield cant complete sets only 50% successful cant maintain possesssion 10 handling errors and yet
the half backs inspire them to score FROM INSIDE THEIR OWN 30M
So much for Daves assertions this is impossible.
Saints continue striving for this dominance and to some extent are successful in terms of possession and position and pressure but sadly no scores.
At the half and the Giants come out and the halves inspire a sucker punch inside 2 minutes. and again 4 minutes later Robinson kicks for Brown to score and yes Huddersfield appear to be dominating
Saints refuse to buckle and despite being under pressure score from their own 30m
This is the stage where the Giants go on the ropes and sucker in the Saints
Then in the final 5 minutes they score AGAIN from deep inside their own 40m to seal a memorable victory
3 long range tries David all against the flow and dominant side at the time all inspired by half backs behind the lesser dominant pack.