Huddersfield Giants blown away by league leaders Catalans Dragons

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It was a very disappointing night for Huddersfield Giants as they fell to a heavy 50-12 defeat at the hands of league leaders Catalans Dragons who showed no mercy throughout, scoring tries at every opportunity until the final hooter sounded.

A slow start to the game saw both defences on top, that was until the 15-minute mark when the visitors put the first two points of the evening on the board through the boot of James Maloney, who successfully converted a penalty.

Soon after, second-rower Benjamin Jullien got himself over the try-line and when Maloney’s conversion was successful once more, Catalan found themselves 8-0 up.

From there on, it was really an uphill battle for the Giants, who are still struggling in the midst of an injury crisis and now find themselves on a run of four consecutive defeats.

Seven further tries were run in by the French side at the John Smith’s Stadium, all by different scorers. Mike McMeeken, Samisoni Langi, Benjamin Garcia, Arthur Mourgue, Sam Tomkins, Maloney and Tom Davies all went over and added points on the board.

Though defeated comfortably in the end, Huddersfield did have a little bit of hope at the beginning of the second-half as they started on the front foot. An impressive run from Ricky Leutele resulted in one of three sin-bins for Catalan on the night and a try for the Giants through Ashton Golding.

More or less straight from that restart though, already 20-6 down, Catalan went over again and nullified any chance of a comeback. After this, the Giants got just one more consolation try close to the end through Jake Wardle which made the scoreline look at least somewhat more respectable.

A comfortable win for the Dragons took them to 10 wins from a possible 11 and a win percentage of over 90% at the top of the Super League table.

Not much will worry Head Coach Steve McNamara, though their discipline on the evening in Yorkshire may well do. Jason Baitieri, Josh Drinkwater and Gil Dudson all saw yellow which McNamara admitted was disappointing in his post-match press conference.

“I’m clearly not happy with having players in the sin bin, we need to have a look at that. I don’t think we have a disciplinary issue long term, but tonight, we put ourselves under pressure after some stupid decisions on the back of being warned.”

In the opposition camp, it’s probably fair to say that there isn’t much to be happy about at the moment. Though one glimpse of positivity which they may be able to take from the Dragons defeat is the much-anticipated debut of young Will Pryce, son of former Great Britain star Leon Pryce.

The 18-year-old moved across the pitch with confidence once he was on as an interchange and created the second of the Giants’ tries with a moment of brilliance. He shifted the ball from right to left to open up space for Wardle to go on and cross.

Speaking post-match, Huddersfield Head Coach Ian Watson had only praise for Pryce and was gutted that his debut couldn’t be remembered for a home win in front of the 4,000 spectators allowed into the John Smith’s in line with COVID regulations.

“I thought Will was really good. He came on and was chattering away, he was being Will. He just went out there to play rugby. We wanted him to get his hands on the ball and to be a threat, and he did that. I just wish we could have got a result and made it a memorable debut, but I’m sure he’ll have many more appearances.”

All in all, a disappointing night for Huddersfield but one which may not have come as a surprise to most given the opposition’s form and quality at the moment.

A final special mention must go to Catalans’ Sam Tomkins who completed the feat of scoring 1000 Super League points against the Giants with a try late on. The 32-year-old has withstood the test of time in the game having come through Wigan Warriors’ academy and will surely be targeting 250 Super League appearances before he calls time on his playing career.

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