Hospitable Huddersfield Giants gifted Catalans Dragons a straight-forward triumph by committing Super League suicide.
As well as the 49th-minute dismissal of Joe Wardle for a high shot, the generous hosts handed the fortunate French a heap load of points by committing schoolboy errors that was almost too unbearable to watch.
It really was the entente cordial taken to its extreme.
Had the Giants produced anywhere near their best form, which they did in the second quarter to rattle up 20 unanswered points, this would have been a home banker.
But with Huddersfield pressing the self-destruct button so many times, this was another one which had definitely got away.
In the end, the Giants had sealed their own fate - big time!
In comparison to last week when the Giants stormed into an early 12-0 lead in the win over Hull KR, Huddersfield made the most sluggish of starts to quickly fall 12 points adrift.
It didn’t augur well straight from the start as Danny Brough’s kick-off went out on the full.
And by the eighth minute they had fallen behind, with Louis Anderson charging over from 10 metres for Pat Richard to land the first of his two first-half conversions.
He second came just five minutes later when an awful mix-up by the Giants as they attempted to clear their own tryline resulted in a walk-in for Glenn Stewart.
It wasn’t looking good.
But the more the half progressed, the more the monster Dragons forwards started to tire and the more the mobile Giants took advantage, with the likes of Sam Rapira and Ukuma Ta’ai causing havoc down the middle.
As a result, it was no surprise when Huddersfield opened their account midway through the half when great passing from one side to the other resulted in Brough and Aaron Murphy combining with Connor for the young centre to touch down in the corner for Brough to land a magnificent touchdown conversion.
If that didn’t give the home side a lift, then the sin-binning of Catalans centre Krisnan Inu for a spear tackle on Eorl Crabtree moments after the restart certainly did.
While the former New Zealand Test ace was off the field, the Giants grabbed two more tries to take the lead for the first time.
Within two minutes of Inu’s departure, Ryan Hinchcliffe was held up over the tryline and on the best play Jordan Tansey’s long pass gave Jermaine McGillvary just enough space to step inside his marker and touch down strongly.
Brough was unable to add the extras and also failed with his next attempt four minutes later when his long pass sent Murphy racing clear and feeding the supporting Larne Patrick to finish off.
Huddersfield were ahead at 14-12.
And three minutes before the break the lead was up to eight as Leroy Cudjoe intercepted Richie Myler’s long pass, initially juggling the ball before racing 90 metres to touch down to bring the curtain down on a fine 21 minute spell.
But the Giants slipped back into their bad all ways of the ending period at the start of the second, when Joe Wardle’s pass was intercepted by former teammate Jodie Broughton stroll over from 10 metres for a third conversion Catalans try to cut the gap to two for a second time.
All of a sudden the hospitable hosts had allowed the Dragons back in.
And they fully accepted the invitation, with Broughton haunting his former players by running in for his second five minutes later on the back of the Giants being forced to drop-out from under their posts.
To make matter worse, Wardle was shown a red card almost straight from the restart for a high tackle on Remi Casty, and the Giants task had just become that much harder.
With the pressure mounting and Huddersfield being caned by referee Ben Thaler in the penalty stakes, it was almost inevitable Catalans would extend their lead and Broughton gleefully completed a 10-minute hat trick in the 53rd minute to take the French 28-20 ahead.
A Todd Carney 40-20 kick led the way for Catalans sixth try of the contest through Paul Aiton’s close-range try, and Richards added the extras to make it 34-20 with 22 minutes still remaining.
If the nature of the hooker’s try as he plunged over from acting half wasn’t bad enough, it was even more embarrassing with the visitors’ next try as Julian Bousquet strolled over under the posts to take the dragons to the 40-point mark.
Kruse Leeming did give the deflated claret and gold faithful some late cheer with by diving over from close range with 10 minutes remaining for a try converted by Tansey, who had taken over the goalkicking duties in the absence of Brough, who a little earlier had been forced to hobble off.
But the Dragons soon hit back with Myler plunging over to put the final nail in the Giants coffin.
This was not a day to savour.
