A local derby in Newcastle for game two of Magic Sunday as Wakefield Trinity took on a Huddersfield Giants side who beat then 24-14 in the Ladbrokes Challenge Cup last weekend.

After a sensational start to the 2018 season the Wakefield side have slipped backwards and are now on the threshold of the middle eights and needing to re-discover that early season form. The Giants were looking to narrow the points difference between the two sides to three points with a win which would edge them within a point of eighth spot.

Wakefield were made strong favourites before the kick-off but both sides knew this was a crucial game in a long, hard, season.

Huddersfield had the better of the start to the game and Aaron Murphy opened the scoring on ten minutes when he found space to take an inside pass from Ukuma Ta’ai. Danny Brough added the conversion for a 6-0 lead.

On thirteen Mason Caton-Brown went close for Trinity but was adjudged in touch before a flying touch down.

On eighteen Adam O’Brien doubled the lead with a scoot from acting half back to go over from two metres through a non-existant Trinity defence. Brough was again accurate with the boot and the Giants were 12-0 ahead.

A Murphy break found Jake Mamo in support to rip the Wakefield defence apart agains on twenty-four minutes as the one-way traffic continued in the Giants favour. Brough again added the extras for 18-0 as the Giants had fun in the sun.

On thirty-two Trinity finally opened their account when Matty Ashurst collected his own rebounded kick to go outside the defender and ground. Liam Finn added the goal to reduce the deficit to twelve points.

Brough kicked a drop goal with ten seconds remaining on the first half clock, meaning that Trinity needed to score three more tries than the Giants in the second half.

Early in the second half the Giants were put on a team warning and on the next play the ball Kruise Leeming was sin-binned for holding down in the tackle. On the next play the ball Ben Jones-Bishop collected a kick to the corner and got the ball to ground before sliding dead in goal. Finn drilled the conversion attempt between the uprights for 12-19.

After a small blip normal Giants service was resumed on forty-nine when Darnell McIntosh grounded one-handed in the left corner off a Mamo touch-pass. Brough kicked superbly from the touchline to re-establish the fifteen point cushion.

Jones-Bishop was the beneficiary of a Pauli Pauli offload to go ten metres to score and improve the angle for the Finn conversion and again the margin was down to seven points.

With seven minutes remaining Reece Lyne pushed aside Mamo, two tackles after Leeming had conceeded a silly penalty, for the fourth Trinity try of the afternoon. Liam Finn was unable to convert, but the Giants lead was cut to just three points.

As the final hooter sounded it was the Giants who were holding on after an excellent second half fight back from Trinity. Two average sides served up an exciting game for the penultimate Magic encounter of 2018, the Giants players and fans being the ones making their journey back down the A1 by far the happier.

Trinity: Hampshire, Jones-Bishop (2T), Tupou, Lyne (T), Caton-Brown, Miller, Finn (3G), Fifita, Randell, Hirst, Kirmond, Ashurst (T), Arona.  Subs: Wood, Horo, Pauli, Huby.

Giants: Rankin, McGillvary, Gaskell, Mamo (T), McIntosh (T), Turner, Brough (4G, DG), Ta’ai, O’Brien (T), Clough, Mellor, Murphy (T), Hinchcliffe.  Subs: Ikahihifo, Leeming (SB on 45), Dickinson, English.

Referee: James Child.

Half-Time: 6-19.

Full-Time: 22-25.

Attendance: .