Huddersfield Giants 30 Catalan Dragons 16: Giants through but Brown unhappy

A high kick from Brough on 31 minutes into a swirling wind was misjudged by Jamal Fakir as Leroy Cudjoe pounced to score.

Brough’s grubber kick into the corner eight minutes later allowed David Hodgson to score.

That made it 12-10 to the Giants after the Dragons had recovered from conceding an early try to lead 10-4 after half an hour.

A sweeping move in which Cudjoe delivered the final pass for Jermaine McGillvary to touchdown put Huddersfield in front after only five minutes.

But Brough, who missed all three first-half conversion attempts, struggled with his goal-kicking against the wind.

He had better luck when converting from close range early in the second half after making a powerful run from deep to set up Kevin Brown for the first of the skipper’s brace.

The wind played a part in getting the Dragons back into it. A warning came on 10 minutes when a high kick from Scott Dureau was misjudged on the Giants’ try-line by Michael Lawrence. Damien Blanch pounced, but Lawrence recovered to deny what looked a certain try.

The breakthrough came on 19 minutes when Larne Patrick misjudged a Dragons high-kick to concede a scrumdown. From the resulting play, Ian Henderson wriggled over.

And the visitors, who beat Huddersfield in Super League 13-12 recently with a late drop-goal, were in front soon after. Jean-Phillipe Baile opened up the Giants’ defence following a slick one-two with Blanch and romped home.

A converted try from Cyril Stacul brought the Dragons to within two points of the home side midway through the second half.

But Huddersfield, who produced an error-strewn show after the break, scored two late converted tries to seal victory.

Darrell Griffin first powered over, and then Brown notched his second try with a fine solo effort after being put clear by Eorl Crabtree.

“We’ve had some players who were pretty poor today,” said angry coach Brown afterwards.

“They know who they are and that they’ll have to do better.

“You can’t carry players through games in this day and age, whether it’s Super League or knockout.

“The main thing is we’re in the hat for the next round. They didn’t play particularly well either, but we seemed to hang in there a bit better and that’s probably what got us the win.

“The next round’s quite a way off so we’ll worry about it later down the line.”

Dragons coach Trent Robinson was also unhappy with his team’s error-strewn performance.

He added: “I was pretty disappointed with how we played.

“There were too many simple errors.”

Huddersfield Giants: Grix, McGillvary, Cudjoe, Lawrence, Hodgson, Brown, Brough, Crabtree, Robinson, Griffin, Ferguson, Kirmond, Gilmour. Substitutes: Lunt, Mason, Patrick, Faiumu.

Catalan Dragons: Stacul, Blanch, Baile, Millard, Vaccari, Bosc, Dureau, Ferriol, Henderson, Fakir, Sa, Raguin, Paea. Substitutes: Mounis, Gigot, Simon, Baitieri.

Referee: P Bentham (Blackpool).