Robinson starts Giants tenure with win over London

Huddersfield remain ninth in the table following the win against London

Betfred Super League

Huddersfield Giants (14) 22

Tries: Lolohea 2, Rushton Goals: Russell 5

London Broncos (6) 16

Tries: Stock, Miloudi, Adebiyi Goals: Leyland 2

Luke Robinson began his tenure as permanent Huddersfield Giants head coach with a hard-fought victory against Super League bottom side London Broncos.

Tui Lolohea grabbed two tries before the break to put the hosts 14-6 up, after Marcus Stock's try had given the Broncos the advantage.

Oli Leyland was instrumental in the visitors' reply, with grubber kicks from the stand-off setting Hakim Miloudi and Sadiq Adebiyi up for tries that put London ahead again.

Two Olly Russell penalties in quick succession restored the Giants' lead and a late Harry Rushton try, after Will Lovell was shown a yellow card for London, completed the tense victory at John Smith's Stadium.

Robinson has now overseen three wins from his nine games since first taking interim charge in mid-July.

After he was named Ian Watson’s permanent replacement earlier in the week, the former Giants and England playmaker said the West Yorkshire side have the potential be a Super League force to be reckoned with.

But a resurgent Broncos, who suffered a golden-point extra-time loss to Leeds Rhinos a week earlier, pushed the Giants to the very end.

After dealing with 10 minutes of relentless pressure, a 40/20 kick from Leyland set London up for their first real raid of the afternoon - with Stock eventually powering his way over the line for the game’s first try.

A Miloudi knock-on for London handed Huddersfield a way back into the game, with Lolohea touching down under the posts after Jarred Bassett failed to deal with a grubber kick through from the Tongan.

Russell restored parity with the conversion and then put the hosts ahead for the first time with a penalty after Adam Clune was taken out as he sent up a kick.

Fine footwork from Kevin Naiqama, as he tore away for an 80m solo dash, ended up with Lolohea adding to the half-time advantage as he cantered into the corner.

The Giants' inability to deal with some deft kicking from Leyland saw London reclaim the lead inside the first 12 minutes of the second half as Miloudi and Adebiyi grabbed tries.

Russell, however, was allowed to tee up two penalties in five minutes to edge the Giants back ahead and, after Lovell was sin-binned for a late hit on the scrum-half, Rushton ensured the points with less than three minutes remaining when he crashed over the line.

Huddersfield head coach Luke Robinson:

"I'm frustrated if I'm honest because I thought our game management was really poor and we put ourselves under way too much pressure.

"The team spirit and effort was really good and they worked really hard for each other.

"It's more about the game management - if we'd used a little bit more of that, I think we'd have run away with that game."

London Broncos head coach Mike Eccles:

"It's the expectation that kills you - we've got to the point of trying to compete and for five, six, seven weeks in a row we've been tremendous and we could have got something out of every game.

"When you don't win those games it's an almighty fall-off but taking into context what we've got out there and are giving away in terms of Super League experience, I'm incredibly proud that we're nearly winning so many of those games.

"We've been banging the drum saying we want to get off the bottom to make a point and it would be fantastic. It would be a small victory for us and we've got two more opportunities to do that."

Huddersfield Giants: Lolohea, McGowan, Marsters, Naiqama, Bibby, Clune, Russell, Hill, Deakin, Greenwood, Livett, Rushton, Cudjoe.

Interchanges: Rush, Ikahihifo, English, Wilson.

London Broncos: Rourke, Kershaw, Natoli, Bassett, Miloudi, O Leyland, Campagnolo, Butler, Davis, Kennedy, Lovell, Adebiyi, Stock.

Interchanges: Tison, Bienek, Jones, Waine.

Sin-bin: Lovell.

Referee: James Vella.