Super League: Danny Brough climbs off sickbed to orchestrate a famous 28-20 Huddersfield victory at Catalan Dragons
Huddersfield talisman Danny Brough climbed off his sickbed to orchestrate a famous 28-20 victory at Catalan Dragons.
Last Updated: 28/04/13 12:27am
The five-try victory in Perpignan kept the Giants just a point behind leaders Wigan.
Huddersfield also overcame the 54th-minute dismissal of scrum-half Luke Robinson, who was sent off by referee James Child for making contact with full-back Morgan Escare's head in an off-the-ball tackle.
The visitors were trailing 16-14 at the time of Robinson's dismissal but rallied magnificently to produce a rousing finale and extend their winning run to five matches.
"It rates as a very, very dogged and determined win," said Huddersfield coach Paul Anderson before lauding his stand-off's display. "Broughy's been on a drip for a few days. He's not been well. He got a virus. His wife was sick at the airport and his kids have been ill as well.
"We had a lot of adversity. A lot of barriers kept being put in front of us but we kept knocking them down. The commitment and camaraderie amongst the group were clear to see."
Wary of a clampdown on Super League coaches criticising referees, Anderson was tight-lipped over the sending-off but admitted the incident re-energised his team.
"I am very angry but I like my money," he said. "I'm not allowed to say the truth.
"I don't know why it is but history shows does that it does galvanise a team. Perhaps it focuses your attention a bit more. You are down a man so you have to work even harder."
The Dragons were without six senior players through injury and coach Laurent Frayssinous was proud of the efforts of his depleted team.
"It's definitely disappointing when you lose a game but I am happy in a way because when you look at the two team sheets, we were without a lot of experienced players and we were close to beating the second team in the league table," he said.
"We just need to keep learning lessons and to keep on working hard. Credit to Huddersfield. They played 30 minutes with 12 players and won the game. It was a great effort from them.
"Having said that, I am disappointed that we didn't play with vision in the last 30 minutes. We were not disciplined enough with the ball."