HUDDERSFIELD GIANTS coach Luke Robinson bemoaned the slow play in his side’s defeat to Catalans Dragons.
He also acknowledged that the “naivety” of his young side showed as their winless start to an injury-ravaged season continues.
“As a spectacle I thought the game wasn’t very good,” said Robinson.
“It was pedestrian. The play the ball speed was unbelievably slow. If you watch the NRL this weekend and looked at today, you’d think it was a different game.
“I think they (Catalans) are a little bit cuter than us. We had a lot of young kids in there today and a lot of naivety.
“They slowed the play the ball down really well. They had bodies on the floor, Ash Golding having to pick the ball up on their try line and pass the ball over the top (of their players), and that comes with experience. They were a little bit smarter in that aspect.
“There’s no shortage of effort and desire. What sums us up at the minute is Fenton Rogers (coming off) in the fifth minute, it looks like he’s done a syndesmosis.
“It’s not been confirmed yet but it doesn’t look good. We’re already depleted with numbers so to lose another is not great.”
Catalans coach Steve McNamara reflected: “We missed the start of the game a little bit.
“Huddersfield came out a little bit quicker and a little bit more aggressive than we did and we had to fight our way back into the game a little bit.
“I thought Julian Bousquet and Chris Satae were really good when they came off the bench and gave us a lift.
“They shifted the momentum at the end of the first half and we scored some really nice tries throughout the period of the game.”
“Our discipline in the second half wasn’t great. We gave away five penalties and three six agains and we could have taken the game a little bit earlier and moved the scoreboard on a little bit quicker than we did.”
On giving a debut to try-scoring young winger Léo Darrélator, McNamara continued: “There is a criticism in terms of what we’re doing in certain quarters but barring Salford, we’re the club with the most homegrown players that have played first-grade this year.
“That is a real credit to the club and the young players. We have three or four more that will make their debuts before the end of the season.”
