Leigh Centurions 6 Huddersfield Giants 44 - Giants are starting to click as a team - Ian Watson

The Giants, who lost their first four league matches under Watson, conceded the first points of the match but went on to score seven tries without reply, five of them in the final quarter, to run out resounding winners in front of a crowd of 2,008 at the Leigh Sports Village.

Centre Ricky Leutele scored two and others came from Kenny Edwards, Jake Wardle, Jermaine McGillvary, Adam O’Brien and Michael Lawrence, with skipper Aiden Sezer kicking eight goals from nine attempts.

“I’m really pleased,” Watson said. “The boys did everything we spoke about. We didn’t want to come to Leigh and slip up.

“It was a war of attrition and you have to stick with it to come through the other side.

“You’ve got to earn the right to throw the ball about and I thought we did that well.

“Once it starts opening up, you can start playing some of the football you saw at the back end of the game and turn pressure into points.

“You’ve got to do the tough stuff first, and I thought our middles were outstanding. Adam O’Brien really settled us down and Matty English had a long spell as well, I thought those two were real standouts for us. That’s three on the bounce and we’ve got to keep that momentum going by doing the simple things and working hard.

“You can see the boys coming together, we’re more of a team now.”

It was always going to be a process but it’s getting there now.”

As in most of their matches in their first season back in the top flight, the Centurions showed plenty of fight and were in the contest for long periods but coach John Duffy was alarmed at the way his side collapsed in the final quarter.

They have now lost all eight matches in both competitions and are also the only team in Super League without a point following Wakefield’s 28-12 win over Hull KR.

Duffy said of the late collapse: “Our completion rate went down to about 34 per cent, it ended up on around 50 per cent.

“It’s upsetting to say the least, that last half-hour or so. We were in the game but it’s happening every week.

“We’ve got to keep working hard. It’s a mental thing, we can’t be doing it for 40 or 50 minutes, we’ve got to keep going for 80.”

The Centurions at least had the encouragement of a promising debut from 27-year-old Australian full-back Brendan Elliot, who produced an accomplished display following a nine-month injury lay-off.

“He’s come though unscathed,” Duffy said. “I thought he looked green at first with his nerves but I thought he looked good for us.”

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