Catalan Dragons 13 Huddersfield Giants 12: Plenty for Brown to ponder after Catalan loss

Despite a crushing win over Salford on Tuesday, the leaders lost at Crusaders on Good Friday and again on Saturday, surrendering the chance to build a commanding lead at the top of the table.

Scott Dureau’s drop goal was the difference in this match, leaving Brown with much to ponder afterwards

“It’s been a poor Easter for us,” admitted Brown.

“We put in a great effort in Perpignan but we’ve had over 20 errors and at this standard of footy, you can’t do that, especially against a team that is playing that well. We need to look at our ball control, because it wasn’t good enough and in attack our support play left a lot to be desired, we had three clear line breaks and no one to back them up, which worried me most.

“We have to look at what we need to do better to win games. I thought Lee Gilmour had scored at the end, but again it goes back to the backing up issue”

Catalan got off to the best possible start when prop David Ferriol latched on to Ian Henderson`s short ball after Danny Brough kicked out on the full from the opening kick-off. Dureau added the simple conversion.

Giants hit back when Scott Grix went on a snaking run that ended with Lee Gilmour going in, with Brough splitting the posts.

The Giants hit the front in the 21st minute, with Grix the scorer after his team were awarded two quick penalties.

Remi Casty thought he had got the home side back on terms, but his effort was chalked off for a knock-on, while Kevin Brown’s score for the visitors was also ruled out for a forward pass.

Catalan got back on terms with 21 minutes left when Jason Baitieri came on to Henderson`s pass, with Dureau adding the two points.

In-form Huddersfield winger Jermaine McGilvary had a score wiped out for a two-on-one steal as both sides looked for a winner, and that duly came when Dureau nailed a one-pointer from 40 yards with nine minutes left.

Catalan Dragons: Stacul, Blanch, Farrar, Baile, Vaccari, Bosc, Dureau, Ferriol, Henderson, Fakir, Casty, Raguin, Mounis. Substitutes: Simon, Baitieri, Pelissier, Touxagas.

Huddersfield Giants: Grix, McGillvary, Cudjoe, Lawrence, Simpson, Brown, Brough, Raleigh, Faiumu, Horne, Gilmour, Ferguson, O’Donnell. Substitutes: Crabtree, Robinson, Griffin, Patrick.

Referee: B Thaler (Wakefield).