Huddersfield made a winning start in their pre-season match programme with a fine performance at Lightfoot Green. ‘Field ‘had by far the better of the early exchanges and were two tries to the good after ten minutes. Harvey Keighley-Payne was first to cross the whitewash, diving over from close range after a succession of driving mauls, with Danny Grainger adding the second when he rounded off a nice move wide right following a solid scrummage inside the ‘Hoppers’ 22.
With the Huddersfield pack looking solid and their backs showing a readiness to run the ball coach Gaz Lewis decided to make some wholesale personnel changes and try out some different combinations on 20 minutes. Although his side continued to play well in was ‘Hoppers’ who scored next when flanker Matthew Frins went in at the corner following a good five metre lineout. However when Adam Malthouse crashed over after a good Huddersfield lineout in the opposite corner the 10 point lead was restored and held until the interval despite some strong pressure from the home team.
At the start of the second half ‘Hoppers’ started to call the shots and put their visitors defence to the test. Despite a heavy penalty count against them for breakdown infringement the ‘Field’defence proved extremely resilient with a succession of fine tackles thwarting the home sides attacking ambitions. However on 65 minutes full back Will Hunt found a way through to score under the posts with the conversion narrowing the gap to three points.
From the re-start ‘Hoppers’ contrived to knock- on and then handle in an offside position. From the resulting penalty Huddersfield’s quick thinking scrum half Joel Hinchliffe wasted no time in taking the tap to dart through for a try centre field which Lewis Workman converted. More Huddersfield quick thinking was to follow. A tap penalty on the Preston 10 metre line led to a fine right wing break with Nick Sharpe adding a match, taking full advantage of quick ruck ball at the breakdown 5 metres out.
A Ben Madden try in the final moment of the match for ‘Hoppers’ brought the game to an end.
