Email
It would probably be disrespectful to both teams to suggest that Huddersfield received a bye through the second round of the play-offs, to move to within 80 minutes of a first Grand Final appearance. But only just.
The Giants could not be blamed, relishing the chance to bounce back from last Thursday's bruising defeat by Wigan and reverting to the freeflowing style that has already earned them the League Leaders' Shield for finishing top of the Super League table, scoring nine tries in the first half alone.
But Hull were an embarrassment, to the club's proud history and to the Super League competition as a whole. The Grand Final play-off series was imported from Australia in 1998 to provide an intense series of matches to determine the true champions. This was merely the most extreme of numerous examples in recent years that British rugby league does not have enough teams of quality to allow eight of Super League's 14 to qualify for a shot at Old Trafford.
It seems certain to spell the end of the road for the club's Australian coach, Peter Gentle, who had already presided over a hapless defeat by Wigan in the Challenge Cup final in August. The pitiful lack of first-half resistance suggested that the Hull players and Gentle himself may well already have been fully aware that major changes are afoot.
The carnage began inside the first minute, as Craig Kopczak stood in a tackle, offloaded to Shaun Lunt, and the hooker's break created the position for Leroy Cudjoe to cross on the right. Danny Brough converted with his left foot, then set up the second with his right, a delicate grubber kick for his half-back partner Luke Robinson to touch down between the posts.
Robinson had come into the game with 98 career tries, and by half-time he had 102. Scott Grix helped himself to a couple, one of them brilliantly set up by Cudjoe, who is now shaping as England's likely World Cup starter at right-centre following an injury to Jack Reed.
At least Hull showed sufficient self-respect to slow the scoring rate in the second half as the game quietly expired. Huddersfield had to wait more than 10 minutes for their 10th try, a second for Cudjoe, and Hull replied with a couple from Tom Briscoe, to follow Jamie Shaul's from a lucky deflection.
So Brough had to settle for a final tally of 12 goals from 13 attempts, although that was enough to take him past Ben Gronow's all-time Huddersffield record of 147 in a season.
The Giants must now wait to see whether they are chosen by Warrington under the deeply divisive Club Call initiative, now in its fifth year, in next week's semi finals.
Tony Smith, the Wolves coach, has left no doubts about his contempt for the system, and has previously stated that he will always choose the lower-ranked team, who in this case would be the winners of Friday night's match between Leeds and St Helens.
But it is the ultimate indictment of Hull's performance, and this no-contest, that Huddersfield must remain a more likely choice, irrespective of their emphatic margin of victory. This night proved nothing, other than the need for the Super League to get its house in order.
Huddersfield Giants: Grix; McGillvary, Cudjoe, Wardle, Murphy; Brough (capt), Robinson; Crabtree, Lunt, Kopczak, Ferres, Chan, Lawrence. Interchange: Patrick, Ta'ai, Ferguson, Wood.
Hull FC: Shaul; Crookes, Horne, Yeaman, Briscoe; Holdsworth, Miller; Watts, Houghton, Johnson, Ellis (capt), Tickle, Westerman. Interchange: Lynch, Pitts, Green, Heramaia.
Referee: R Silverwood (Mirfield)
;