Huddersfield handed seventh straight loss by Catalans

Betfred Super League

Huddersfield (6) 18

Tries: Gagai, Jake Bibby, Halsall Goals: Sutcliffe 3

Catalans (14) 38

Tries: Sims, Darrelatour, Bousquet, Sironen, Seguier, Pangai Junior Goals: Aispuro-Bichet 7

Huddersfield Giants' dismal start to the season continued as they slipped to a seventh successive defeat at the hands of Catalans Dragons.

The home side took the lead when Jacob Gagai broke through two attempted tackles to get the ball down but the visitors quickly hit back through Tariq Sims' score from Luke Keary's grubber kick.

The game turned in the French side's favour when they were awarded an eight-point try for Leo Darrelatour's effort and Sam Hewitt was sin-binned for kicking out at the debutant in the act of scoring.

Julian Bousquet caught a high kick on the bounce and then Bayley Sironen broke through to extend Les Dracs' advantage in the opening five minutes of the second half. Jake Bibby gave the Giants some hope, but Paul Seguier scored after a great passing move on the last tackle.

The injury-hit hosts battled on gamely and Sam Halsall grabbed a high George Flanagan kick in the corner before Tevita Pangai Junior barged over for the away team for the game's final score in the last few minutes.

Victory for the Challenge Cup semi-finalists was a third in four games as they look to move on from their own slow start to the year.

Tariq Sims scored the first of Catalans' six tries

Giants head coach Luke Robinson had called his side's lengthy injury list "horrific" in his news conference before the game and things went from bad to worse when they lost young prop Fenton Rogers in the first 10 minutes of the game.

Gagai's determined effort had put the home side in front after that but that was about as good as it got for them.

Robinson's men did not help themselves when Hewitt was shown a yellow card for a petulant kick out at Darrelatour as he touched down and the French side made the most of their extra man with two tries while he was off the field.

Huddersfield did manage two successful captain's challenges in the final 10 minutes but by then the game was over as a genuine contest.

They travel to West Yorkshire rivals Leeds on Friday (17:30 BST), while Catalans will look to continue their improved form when they host financially-troubled Salford (18:00) the following day.

Giants injury crisis 'an epidemic' - reaction

Huddersfield Giants head coach Luke Robinson told BBC Radio Leeds:

"I thought the game was pedestrian. As a spectacle it was so slow. If you watched an NRL game over the past couple of days and then watched that you'd think it was a different sport.

"We tried really hard. It's been well-documented the amount of player and experience we have out, it's very difficult for me to go in there and rollick them. They're all trying.

"What sums it up is Fenton looks like he's done his syndesmosis [high ankle sprain] after five minutes and if it is that it could be months. We signed Bill Leyland on a two-week loan deal and he got knocked out after 20 minutes and failed a head injury assessment so won't play next week.

"We are where we are, I don't want to be a moaner or a whinger but it's becoming an epidemic at this moment in time. It's crazy. We're doing an in-depth assessment of what we can do to stop these injuries but some of them are just freaks."

Huddersfield: Rogers, Golding, Burgess, Hewitt, Greenwood, Cudjoe, Flanagan Jr, Gagai, Carr, Sutcliffe, Bibby, Halsall, McGowan.

Interchanges: Milne, Jack Bibby, Billington, Leyland, Deakin.

Catalans: Aispuro-Bichet, Makinson, Romano, Smith, Darrelatour, Keary, Fages, Pangai Junior, Da Costa, Garcia, Sims, Sironen, Partington.

Interchanges: Bousquet, Satae, Seguier, Laguerre, Rouge.

Referee: Liam Moore.