Flanagan inspires Giants win at Castleford

Betfred Super League

Castleford (12) 12

Goals: Milnes (2) Tries: Lawler, Cini

Huddersfield (12) 30

Huddersfield Giants defeated Castleford Tigers to record their third straight Super League victory, led by George Flanagan, who scored 14 points and orchestrated yet another try.

The 20-year-old full-back helped Giants recover from last week’s hammering by Catalans Dragons, sparking a moment of real quality with Tui Lolohea’s opening try, converted scores from Sam Halsall and Taane Milne, and then added a penalty and crossed for a try himself.

At 12-0, Cas, who had led Wigan Warriors to victory last week, responded with tries from George Lawler and Zac Cini just before the break.

In the second half, the Giants defeated the home side and added tries from Milne, Flanagan, and Lolohea late on to move within two points of Tigers in the standings and halt the hosts’ miserable home run to just two victories in their last 13 Super League games at the Mend-a-Hose Jungle.

Danny McGuire, the head coach for Castleford, is facing an RFL investigation after complaining about the refereeing of his side’s late defeat against Wigan last week. However, the Giants’ hooker Zac Woolford was sin-binned after just 40 seconds.

The Australian appeared to have given the Tigers an early advantage by barging into Joe Westerman late and receiving a yellow card.

The only real dash in the opening half-hour came when Flanagan made a half-break and freed Jacob Gagai for a sprint down the right before sending Lolohea over. They were hit on the counter-attack by Huddersfield, which gave them the opportunity to use it.

As center Halsall, making his 50th appearance for the club, found a gap and Flanagan skillfully converted from the touchline, the Giants regrouped.

Huddersfield appeared to be taking a comfortable half-time lead, but Cas unexpectedly discovered the spirit that made them leave just before beating Wigan.

Lawler could score on Lawler’s break, and Cini’s feint and burst through two tackles, which Rowan Milnes converted both, gave the home side the lead.

The Giants, however, lost the lead in the second half as a result of the half-time break, which halted that momentum.

Milne had a chance to defeat Lolohea’s grubber, but moments later hed offload to Gagai and gained control of his team by reversing the lead.

At 18-12, Innes Senior tipped Innes Senior in the direction of the score, but when he should have scored, Flanagan landed a penalty to give the visitors some breathing room.

Danny McGuire, the coach of the Castleford Tigers, told BBC Radio Leeds:

“It was a really poor performance,” the singer said. Nothing that we discussed was done by us. We probably assumed it would be simple, but it would never be that way because of the sin-bearing early.

We didn’t want to do some of the tough things we did last week. We assumed it would just occur, which is not the case in our game.

“Huddersfield played the better team in a really bad game,” said the player. Both teams performed quick turnarounds. There is really no excuse for them because they’ve been to France.

Luke Robinson, the coach of the Huddersfield Giants, told BBC Radio Leeds:

“The first ten minutes gave me a quick summary of it. In the first minute, we literally lost a man, and at that point, we just seemed so composed and composed.

The way we were playing would have been very simple to be altered, but we didn’t. We were extremely good and kept our guns. When a man down, going one up or down indicates where we were.

Interchanges: Stimson, Hall, Griffin, Milnes, and Griffin

Huddersfield: Gagai, Milne, Halsall, Swift, Lolohea, Frawley, Powell, Woolford, Wilson, Greenwood, Rushton, Cudjoe, Gagai, Gagai, Milne, and Gagai.

Golding, King, Burgess, Rush, and others exchange.