Huddersfield 76 Hull 18 match report: Luke Robinson inflicts more humiliation on Hull
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The Giants' fairy-tale season goes on, but Hull's chequered year ended in an absolute nightmare. The beaten Challenge Cup finalists were embarrassed at Wembley last month; they were humiliated as they bowed out of the play-offs tonight and Huddersfield ran in 13 tries against some of the worst defending you could ever see at this stage of the campaign.
On a night of records, Luke Robinson scored four tries, Danny Brough 12 goals and the team as a whole more points than any side in a play-off.
Huddersfield knew that Hull's strength is supposedly in their defence, but they could not have been much swifter in breaching it. Craig Kopczak off-loaded in the tackle, Shaun Lunt's clean break should have brought a try, but Leroy Cudjoe's follow-up did. Brough landed the conversion and then produced one of his perceptive kicks in general play to set up Robinson. Less than seven minutes gone and the Giants were 12 points up; last week's lame effort against Wigan was looking like a mere blip.
That was even more the case when Joe Wardle latched onto a loose ball deep in his own territory and Scott Grix raced away to score from 60 metres. It could hardly get worse for Hull, but it did with a side-stepping run to bring Robinson the 100th try of his career.
Everything the Giants were trying was coming up trumps, notably a kick from Brett Ferres that seemed to seek out Aaron Murphy in a fractionally offside position, but which was given the thumbs up by the video referee.
There was a break from the torture when Daniel Holdsworth's huge kick came off the top of the post for Jamie Shaul to put Hull on the scoreboard. A few of their supporters were on their way back to Humberside by then.
Brough's wickedly bouncing kick then allowed Robinson to complete his hat-trick. The Giants seemed almost bored with scoring in the second half, until Cudjoe reached over for his second. Tom Briscoe got a couple back for Hull, as any remaining intensity went out of the game.
Huddersfield Grix; McGillvary, Cudjoe, Wardle, Murphy; Brough, Robinson; Crabtree, Lunt, Kopczak, Ferres, Chan, Lawrence. Substitutes used Patrick, Ta'ai, Ferguson, Wood.
Hull Shaul; Crookes, Horne, Yeaman, T Briscoe; Holdsworth, Miller; Watts, Houghton, Johnson, Ellis, Tickle, Westerman. Substitutes used Lynch, Heremaia, Green, Pitts.
Referee R Silverwood (RFL).
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