Huddersfield Giants boss on first win ‘relief’, George Flanagan and card decisions

Luke Robinson has spoken of his pride and relief after seeing his Huddersfield Giants side claim their first win of the Super League season. The Giants beat Hull FC 12-10 at St James’ Park in what was a bad tempered Magic Weekend contest with two yellow cards and a red being shown.

The Giants took the lead through a George Flanagan penalty before Leroy Cudjoe broke away and touched down under the sticks. Hull hit back through Herman Ese’ese but Jacob Gagai’s try in the corner, set up by Adam Clune’s superb pass, proved to be the difference on the day, bringing an end to the club’s Super League losing streak and getting the Giants over the line.

The win was enough to lift Huddersfield above Salford Red Devils and off the foot of the table and Robinson felt it was more than deserved.

“I’m proud, relieved, there’s mixed emotions if I’m honest,” Robinson said. “We’ve played pretty well in a lot of games this year and not come away with the spoils and it’s been testament to the group just how committed they’ve been to each other and what we’re doing.

“It would have been very, very easy for the group to become despondent with each other, with me or the club. They didn’t, they’ve stuck together and they’ve been working really, really hard.

“I’m proud they’ve done that and really chuffed for them to have something to show for their hard work. There’s been many a game where we have been the better side and not won. To actually get the two points is a nice feeling.”

Huddersfield Giants boss hails game changing moment

The efforts of Flanagan were pivotal to the Giants’ success with the youngster making a try saving tackle to deny Cade Cust in the first half. And, he claimed a number of high kicks in the second as Hull looked for the error and tried to apply pressure.

“It’s the game changer,” he said. “There’s certainly moments within a game that win you games and that was one of them.

“There’s certain key moments that if they go the other way, we haven’t managed to ice this year, those clutch moments. He’s always been able to attack, he’s grow up in a rugby league family so he can attack.

“The side of the game I’ve been speaking about is defence and that probably showed all the hard work that he’s been doing, his defence was phenomenal, not only that try saving tackle, but taking the ball, Prycey launched the ball and it was one that was coming down all over the place. Everything that was asked of him today, he delivered.”

Huddersfield Giants saw Tom Burgess sin-binned for a late shot on John Asiata in the first half and that kickstarted a busy period for referee Aaron Moore, who showed Sam Eseh a yellow for a high shot and Liam Knight a red for a similar offence without mitigation.

“It’s the way the game is at the moment,” Robinson added. “If you make contact with the head then inevitably you’re going to see a card.

“There were a couple of incidents that went on report as well and hopefully they’re going to view them in the light that I saw them. You can’t just move out the way and as they go into collision, they drop do Hull and that’s something we worked on all week.

“When they put themselves in that position it’s difficult to move your whole body out of the vicinity so hopefully they have some common sense.”