Catalans Dragons 12 Huddersfield Giants 26: Giants feel the heat to satisfaction of Brown

Huddersfield opened the scoring on the half hour after a fine pass from Luke Robinson put Stephen Wild in a gap and he burst clear of the Catalans defence.

Wild rounded full-back Clint Greenshields to score and also managed to make Brett Hodgson's conversion attempt a formality to give the Giants a six point lead. Huddersfield extended their lead with two minutes to go before half-time.

Catalans spilled possession and Kevin Brown managed to put his boot to the ball, hack it into the in-goal area and David Hodgson raced on to touch down in the left corner.

Brett Hodgson failed with his conversion attempt but the Giants held a 10 point half-time lead.

The visitors further extended their lead early in the second half with tries by Shaun Lunt and Leroy Cudjoe, both converted by Brett Hodgson.

Catalans bounced back with a try when, following a penalty, a Tony Gigot kick towards the right-hand post protector just evaded a Giants defender and Setaimata Sa was on hand to touch down next to the post.

Gigot converted the try to pull the Dragons back into the game.

Huddersfield put the game to bed with an outstanding solo effort from Luke Robinson who caught Andrew Bentley napping and went over to the left of the posts.

Brett Hodgson failed with his effort at goal, the Giants leading by 20 points with 16 minutes remaining.

With time running out the Catalans scored a consolation try through Frederic Vaccari after another superb kick by Gigot.

Huddersfield managed to see out the remaining time with relative ease to gain fifth place in the final Super League table.

Huddersfield coach Nathan Brown said: "In the end it was probably a good game for us given the heat out here tonight, and the game wasn't a great game, but I feel that we had to work hard to compete in there and win it and earn our money.

"That is what we probably needed coming into the final. Apart from the Wigan game we've had a relatively easy run through to the finals and we've put some big scores on sides after we got away from them early, so from that point of view I think that the workout that we got was good.

"Did we play great? No we probably didn't, but like I said, I was happy with the workout that we got."

Catalans Dragons: Greenshields, Vaccari, Raguin, Carlaw, Stacul, Sherwin, Gigot, Casty, McGuire, Fakir, Elima, Sa, Johnson. Substitutes: Gossard, Martins, Simon, A. Bentley.

Huddersfield: B. Hodgson, Cudjoe, Gilmour, Lawrence, D. Hodgson, Brown, Robinson, Crabtree, Brough, D. Griffin, Lunt, Fa'alogo, Wild. Substitutes: Raleigh, Faiumu, Patrick, Horne.

Referee: R Silverwood (Dewsbury).