By N Lawless
Huddersfield continued their winning streak with another hard-fought 31-15 victory at Hull on a miserably wet afternoon.
Gareth Lewis’ men still have a 100% record in 2015 as they made it five wins in a row as they continue to pull away from relegation danger.
Huddersfield made a positive start with Joel Hinchcliffe’s penalty after four minutes putting them into an early lead.
Hull struck back with a penalty of their own five minutes later, Greg Lound striking between the sticks.
The wet conditions made for a difficult afternoon in regards to technique and the game struggled to find a real rhythm in the opening minutes, with both sides trading possession.
On 15 minutes, a good Huddersfield move saw the ball find Elliot Knight in space on the left wing but he just couldn’t get past the final Hull defender on his way to a try.
The breakthrough for the away side eventually came five minutes later when a big push saw James Purcell force the ball over the line for the opening try, Joel Hinchcliffe converting from a difficult angle.
Hull responded by putting heavy pressure on the Huddersfield defence, who held out sturdily from an extended attack to survive till half-time with the score at 10-3.
After the break Huddersfield swept back into control of the match, with another big push seeing skipper Nick Sharpe force the ball over for his customary try on 44 minutes, Hinchcliffe converting again.
Huddersfield now looked in control and increased their lead on 57 minutes with a swift passing move finding Elliot Hodgson with space in the middle of the park to sprint through and complete another try, converted again.
Hull responded well to their latest setback and hit back five minutes later with a scrambled try from Alex Piercy with conversion making it 24-10.
Straight from the restart, Hull regained possession immediately and once again put Huddersfield on the back-foot, with the away side now looking shaky and on the rocks.
After a sustained period of pressure, Huddersfield were able to hold out once again and got their rewarded with a try in the 74th minute, a clever reverse pass finding Tom Owen to sprint through the centre at pace to complete a try to confirm Huddersfield’s win, Hinchcliffe completing his impressive day of kicking.
Hull managed a late consolation try through Ali Heard but still missed the conversion, allowing Huddersfield to hold out for their 31-15 win and continue their red-hot 2015.
Huddersfield
Hodson, Knight, Hodgson, Owen, Hall, Bell, Hinchcliffe, Purcell, Walker (H), Battye, Thompson, Rhodes, Morrell, Hoyle, Sharpe
Subs: Jeffrey, Shields, Lewis, Rawsthorne, Malthouse
Hull
Kirk, Holland, Heard, Fletcher, Hihetah, Lound, Clark, Price, Rice, Macklin, Thomas, Alderson, Devonshire, Sullivan, Cook
Subs: Matthews, Tamanis, Stafford, Jobling, Piercy
Referee: Mr B McGaffney
