Rugby League: Reilly rips into his sad losers

MALCOLM REILLY publicly gave his Huddersfield players a public dressing-down after they were hammered 40-12 at Wakefield yesterday.

It was the Giants' eighth successive defeat and they are bottom of Super League, level on points with Hull - who lost at Castleford - but with an inferior points difference.

Reilly, the former Great Britain coach, said: "The situation was that we were desperate to win today, but you wouldn't have thought so with the number of errors we made. They were fundamental things, and we put ourselves rather than the opposition under pressure.

"There seems to be a lack of commitment and self-belief. We need to find some character from somewhere, but what do you do? It's just desire. I think they've become too accustomed to accepting the easy way, and they don't dig in and show real character."

Gene Ngamu scored a debut try but was later sent to the sin-bin. The former New Zealand stand-off, who only arrived in England on Friday, touched down after six minutes to give the Giants a dream start at Belle Vue.

But he was later shown the yellow card by referee Russell Smith for holding back Paul March and his day did not get any better as Wakefield ran away with the game in the second half, scoring 24 unanswered points in a 10- minute spell.

Gateshead coach Shaun McRae believes his men still have a chance of reaching the play-offs - despite going down 28-22 at home to London.

"Fifty-eight points against in the last two games isn't worthy of a team that should make the final five and today is a big blow for us and puts us under a lot of pressure," McRae said.

"Missing the two front row forwards is a big problem for us and we've taken steps to address it for next season but we can't do anything about it unless we get a couple of guys back. Mathematically we can make the five but once the others hear that we have lost that will be an impetus for them."

Salford City gave their survival hopes a boost with a 26-12 victory over Sheffield Eagles.

The Reds, who knocked Sheffield off the Wembley trail this season, romped into a 14-0 lead by the break and though John Kear's men fought back to 14-12, the Reds stepped on the gas to secure a valuable victory.

Chester Wolves qualified for next Saturday's Rugby League Conference final by beating Cheltenham Warriors 27-16 at Woolston yesterday. Chester will face the holders, Crawley Jets, at the New River Stadium, Tottenham.