Nathan Brown:

"I think they've got the best forward line in the competition. If they hadn't had such a slow start I think they'd be much higher up the league."

[urlhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-league/17734366[/url

slow start :/

Yeah, I think I'd go with that

I'm never totally happy with Whitehead in the centres as opposed to second row, but I think he's a better option there than using Platt or Walker in the backs. But having Walker in the bench gives cover for backs AND forwards.

Also if Whitehead starts in the 2nd row then presumably that bumps Bateman onto the bench, and I'd rather him there from the start. He's not really an impact type player. I guess the other option would be Elima on the bench for the impact 'slot'. But, no, on balance I'd go with Mats line up

1. Ainscough
2. Purtell
3. Whitehead
4. Lulia
5. Platt
6. Addy
7. Jefferies
8. Hargreaves
9. Diskin
10. Manuokafoa
11. Elima
12. Bateman
13. Langley
14. Walker
15. Kopczak
16. Burgess
17. Olbison

Don't tihnk Pryce has done enough to be in the starting line up. Falling on the ball to score a try isn't good enough for me. Ainscoughs showed him up since he's come into the squad.

Ainscough looks enthusiastic plus he has pace to burn and willing to work for his team. Pryce has erm height

I know which I'd pick

Heavy rain overnight and more looking likely. Will these conditions be in our favour ?
Bring waterproofs people

1 Ainscough
2 K.Pryce
3 Lulia
4 Purtell
5 Platt
6 Jeffries
7 Addy
8 Kopczac
9 Diskin
10 Hargreaves
11 Elima
12 Whitehead
13 Langley
Subs
Burgess
Manuakafoa
Bateman
Walker

Giants have sold out their allocation of 500 tickets. Their "feel good" is certainly taking hold!

Ainscough's problems have never been about his attack.

His defence has actually improved since being at the Bulls imo. Better option than Pryce anyway.

I've only seen him at Keighley pre-season. Terrible defence.

Disappointing afternoon.

Game spoiled by a combination of the horrible pitch conditions, which were so gluey that both teams spent half the game kicking the ball a mile downfield and making the opponents try to climb out of the mudbath, and us being on the wrong end of a very ropey performance by the league's most-deteriorated referee, Terrible Albert.

Either team could in fairness have won, but overall, the Bulls were about 50% the better team.

In the first half, we were easily the better team, kicked for postion very well, and dominated the collision and the tackle, but went in at half time behind due to two strokes of luck for Shudds, both long-range breakaway tries.

The teams were more even in the second half, but Shudds had the better of it mainly due to us having been pegged in our own 40 for about 20 minutes, and basically having no petrol left in our tanks for the final quarter as a result. During this spell, Albert gave some soft penalties to them, and made a couple of very erratic calls (or his touchies did) and it meant that whatever we did, we couldn't clear our lines.

Our kicking was much worse in the second half, Shudds were able to tidy up everything, but we weren't kicking from good positions.

A mention for Karl Pryce, who I thought easily had his best game, he was superb. It wasn't the sort of game where a conventional fullback role was played, but he looked after everything asked of him, ran out of defence very hard, and one bonecruncher (which maybe saved a try) in the second half was just great. Well done him.

I thought Danny Brough was the big difference between the two sides this afternoon. He kicked the life out of us and nearly every kick he put in made us work it back from our own 20. I thought Jeffries kicked ok but he was put under a lot more pressure from the Giants than than we applied to Brough. We can't let players like Briers have that much time and space next week if we want a result.

It was another great effort from the team once again though. Some of the big hits put in will remind the Giants that they were in a tough game tomorrow morning. I thought the Giants were the better side for the majority of the game and deserved the points today. Alibert is a bit of an embarrassment to the full time referees at the moment but you have to prepare for his bizarre decisions and it didn't come as any great shock to me. I thought the ref against Donny handled the match much better last week, Leahy was it? Surely time to send Thierry back on a plane to France.

You saved me writing that BB. Pretty well how I'd call it too. Jefferies was closed down too much - far too much was on his shoulders - and Brough had a field day. That and Halibut's bizarre refereeing was the difference, IMO. KP had a pretty good game. Ainy struggled.

Yes Bully Boxer sums it up well

If we could have kept a lid on Brough like they kept the shackles on Jeffries then we could have actually won that game.

For virtually the whole game I felt we matched them, and when it came the forwards I thought we pretty well dominated. And that against the table toppers, and with about 12 first choice players unavailable.

We are not at level at the moment here I expect us to beat the top teams - all we supporters ask is for a performance of commitment, passion and 100% effort. We had that in spades this week, so I went home satisfied, despite the loss.

This was one week that I was more than happy to stay back and give the team a round of applause at the final whistle.

Luke O'Donnell reminds me of Ryan Bailey... a thug.

I was worried that the players might finally let the results of the antics of the children in the shareholders' playpen get to them today.

Dunno why I did them the dis-service of not having full confidence in them, because they proved my concern totally unfounded.

Played their hearts out yet again. Passion and effort totally undiminished.

The fans could not ask any more of them.

Come on, that's stretching the truth somewhat. Even with a full strength squad, I reckon today's team would only change by 4, maybe 5 players. We're not far off our starting 17 now imo.
Brough was the difference, simple as.

A difficult game due to poor conditions, I thought Hudds kick down field and hunt the mistake worked well and a lot of other teams would have buckled under the pressure and let in a lot more points. Our defence was good as we were pined in our own 20m for a long time and still managed to keep them out.
The ref did us no favours today seeing him take a step forward so Hudds were onside was just crap.
Huddersfield may be top of the table but they certainly did not get it all their own way today. COYB

Anyone have any idea what LOD did to get sin-binned? I didn't even know whether it was a red or yellow because Halibut just gave up trying to get a card out of his pocket.

Your kidding. He was his usual bone idle self! That hit he did was fantastic. But the only reason he touched the ball was because Brough kept turning him around with his kicking. With conditions like that you need your backs to be taking the ball up every set to take the load off the forwards. Pryce who is a giant would also take some energy out of the Giants. But as per usual he wasn't interested in taking the ball up. Hope to god we get Kearney back next week.

Thought we dropped too much ball in our own 20. When we finally got in thier half we flung the ball straight into touch when we needed to build. We ran out of juice towards the end, partly because Potter user 9 subs after 60 mins. Great effort but lacked attacking edge. Jefferies was awful today. Huddersfields first try was all down to him. If you going to charge out of the line, make show you hit the man. Brough just walked passed him. Jefferies was our main half back today and had to take control. Twice he got caught in posession and flung it to a youngster on the last. Not good enough from him today i'm afraid. Hopefully we won't be too down heartened, but need to improve next week for the cup. but great effort from the lads. Not going to comment on Alibert as used to his performances by now

P.S the pitch was an absolute disgrace, has the groundsman been made redundant?

My view was forever being obscured by the two trainers that Hudds seemed forever to have on the pitch.

Really pleased with commitment and passion shown today from all our players, Brough was the difference for me and the final result was harsh on us with the way we defended for our lives in the second half.

Would just like to say to all Huddersfield fans who were giving it the "at least we will have a club to support next year" you are a joke! If it wasnt for "SIR KEN" writing off your huge losses every year you would have been liquidated a long time ago because the size of your support cant sustain the huge wages you are paying under your flexi-salary cap.

This is your heyday and you will still win NOTHING

Hmm.

1 - re KP: suspect you watched a different match to most of the rest of us?

2 - re Jeffries - Hudds did a very good job of closing him dowm, that was why he was less effective. They knew they had to do that, and they did. We had few other options given the missing players.

3 - last time I checked, it was not in the groundsman's remit to relay the underground drainage at the bottom of a bloody great hole in the ground?

Think you're being a bit harsh there. I thought there was tons of effort today. Jeffries struggled as he was put under lots of pressure. For long periods he was our only kicker on the field so much easier to close down. Brough's a better player all round anyway so it's hard to put much blame of Jeffries.

We did lack a bit of composure when we had the ball in their half and not taking our chances cost us in the end. The long spells defending our line really sapped the energy. That said I thought we tackled very well. In the end Hudders deserved the win but the scoreline flattered them.

The ref wasn't the reason we lost but he was hopeless. He seemed to make totally random decisions at the PTB that bemused both sides. Not surprising players got frustrated. In the end Hudders extra experience go them home.

Roll on next week with Gale and L'Estrange back hopefully.