Huddersfield Giants suffered another night of frustration to remain stuck in Super League’s bottom four.
Last Friday’s spirited 14-14 draw at St Helens had offered coach Rick Stone’s side some genuine hope heading into the home clash against Catalans Dragons.
But on the night the men from West Yorkshire were distinctly second best against their French foe as they made it seven top-flight fixtures without a win.
It was hard to find any positives in the way the Giants performed on the night, although it was good to see full-back Jake Mamo making a promising long-awaited try-scoring debut and Tom Symonds easing his way back into fitness following knee surgery.
However, with the Giants in generous mood to gift their opponents a straightforward passage to success and failing to make the most of the possession they created, it ended up being a relatively painful matchday experience.
In a tight opening period, the visitors just had the edge to lead 12-10.
It was clear from the opening exchanges that this would be a closely-contested encounter between two evenly-matched sides.
But it was the hosts who broke the deadlock in the 13th minute.
Having earned a free play deep inside Catalans territory, Danny Brough immediately kicked to the corner for Darnell McIntosh to collect and pat the ball back inside in an instant for Aaron Murphy to collect and cross.
Brough’s excellent touchline conversion gave the Giants a six-point lead.
However, in what proved to be a see-saw first 40, the Dragons struck back midway through the half when a neat inside ball sent Tony Gigot stepping to the line for Luke Walsh to add the extras from under the posts.
With chances at a premium, it wasn’t until the 35th minutes before Huddersfield retook the lead, with a try that had a bit of everything.
The ball was kept alive superbly on the last tackle for Sam Wood to finally collect and make good ground on the right.
It looked as if the young centre had taken the wrong option when he elected to kick-ahead rather than feed his winger, Jermaine McGillvary.
But the Catalans defence fumbled the ball in their in-goal area and Jake Mamo. Pounced to score on his debut, although just too wide out for Brough to add the extras.
A storming charge from Oliver Roberts almost brought its reward shortly after.
Unfortunately, however, Catalans survived the scare and a minute before the break Richie Myler raced clear and fed the dangerous
Brayden Williame to cross, with Walsh converting to nudge his side ahead.
And the Frenchmen extended their lead eight minutes after the restart when their kept the ball alive on the sixth tackle for Walsh to dab through for Myler to collect and score a third converted try for his side.
There was a suggestion the play had stopped before the ball reached Walsh, which was something Brough certainly thought as he was despatched to the sin-bin for arguing his case.
With Brough cooling off, Catalans took full advantage of their good fortune in the 56th minute when the ball was whipped put to the right for Vincent Duport to pick up on the bounce and stretch out to score.
Walsh landed the touchline conversion, and at 24-10 the game was slipping away.
And the return to the fray of Brough immediately made matters worse as his attempted short pass to a teammate on his own 20 went straight to Walsh to race away for a third Dragons try in 12 demoralising minutes.
In fact, the only moment of cheer for the home fans during that time was seeing Walsh just fail to land the goal following his gift-wrapped score.
Happily, there was something more positive to cheer six minutes later when, following a slick Lee Gaskell, the former St Helens man quickly followed up to chip perfectly to the corner for Jermaine McGillvary to touch down with ease.
Brough goaled from the touchline and the visitors’ lead was down to 12 points.
But the Dragons held firm to deny a potential late rally, with a 76th-minute Gigot drop-goal putting the game out of sight.
