FIELD’S PACK ARE KEY TO VICTORY

HUDDERSFIELD secured a solid 48-22 win against Blaydon on the back of a dominant performance by their pack.

The home eight out-scrummaged their opponents throughout the match to create the platform for a comfortable bonus-point victory and record two penalty tries in the process.

Field made a bright start and took a lead courtesy of a Harry Davey penalty after two minutes.

However, for the next 20 minutes the game went somewhat flat.

Although Huddersfield produced moments of promise they weren’t totally convincing and allowed Blaydon to take a lead which they held until the half hour.

This came from a converted try on the right wing by Tom Gorman following a good break by centre Joel Matavasi.

Another penalty by Davey narrowed the gap before the first of the penalty tries gave his side the lead.

A fine catch, break, chip and take by Huddersfield full-back Lewis Workman resulted in him being brought down illegally.

From the line-out that followed the penalty the Field pack drove close and Blaydon hooker Matt Thompson was yellow carded for infringing.

The try came when Blaydon then collapsed the scrummage five metres out.

On 38 minutes Blaydon were reduced to 13 men when prop Alex Dodds was side lined for 10 minutes after another collapsed scrummage.

When the scrum was re-set Field took full advantage of the numerical superiority, with No. 8 Richard Piper touching down behind it.

Davey made the conversion on a day he was destined not to miss one.

From the re-start Piper took a good catch and fed Davey, who made a scintillating solo 40-metre break before passing to Brandon Conway.

He continued the thrust forward, offloading in the tackle to scrum half Joel Hinchliffe for try three. Davey’s kick rounded off the first half.

The bonus point try came shortly after the break. A left-side break took play to the Blaydon line and when Huddersfield were awarded a scrum close to it another score seemed inevitable.

The Blaydon pack held firm but centre Tom Owen broke through and was tackled just short. When the ball was re-cycled Adam Malthouse crashed over from close range.

By the hour mark two more tries had created a 41-point leading margin.

The first came after yet another solid scrum, Brandon Conway rounding the defence down the left to score behind the posts.

The last one was the second of the two penalty tries. At this point it looked as though the home side would rack up a cricket score, but it was not to be.

Although the young half-back pairing of Davey and Ollie Fox, who had come on to replace Hinchliffe, sparked a few classy plays Huddersfield surrendered their grip in the final quarter and allowed Blaydon to finish the match strongly.

In a defiant final spell they scored three more tries to return home with a try-scoring bonus point of their own.

With 10 minutes to go Huddersfield lost the services of replacement forward Ben Morrill to the sin bin and the Blaydon pack drove over from the penalty that followed.

Another try came from flanker Rob Lenderyou with three minutes to go, with the final score coming on the stroke of full time.