Huddersfield beat Catalans 42-20 at Accu Stadium as club marks move to Dewsbury
Huddersfield Giants defeated Catalans Dragons 42-20 at the Accu Stadium in a Super League match on 8 August 2026 as the club marked the announcement of its move to Dewsbury.
The club admitted nearly 9,000 fans into the ground for free so supporters could hear the Dewsbury announcement at half-time, and six first-half tries helped Huddersfield build a 36-0 lead by the interval, with scores from Sam Halsall (two), Fenton Rogers, Connor Wrench (one of two), Sam Hewitt and Zane Dunford. The victory was Huddersfield’s third straight Super League win and came under head coach Jim Lenihan, who was appointed in May.
Huddersfield opened the scoring in the fourth minute when Halsall, making his return after nearly four months out with a partial Achilles tear, intercepted and ran from inside his own half to score under the posts. Rogers crossed after eight minutes and Halsall added his second shortly afterwards in the left corner. Connor Wrench finished a 21st-minute turnover with a long-range score, Hewitt grounded Tui Lolohea’s kick for his first try of the season on 31 minutes, and Dunford powered over a minute before half-time.
The half-time announcement drew a mixed reaction and the hosts failed to maintain the first-half intensity after the interval. Catalans cut the deficit through Ben Condon before Wrench intercepted and covered most of the pitch for his second try, which completed Huddersfield’s seventh team try of the match.
Franck Maria was sent off for a reckless challenge on George King on 61 minutes, reducing Catalans to 12 players, but the French side then scored three unanswered tries. Condon powered over for his second, Leo Darrelatour went in the right corner and Charlie Staines added a fourth try for Catalans five minutes from time.
Huddersfield’s scoring summary lists Halsall 2, Rogers, Wrench 2, Hewitt and Dunford with Flanagan adding seven goals; Catalans’ scorers were Condon 2, Darrelatour and Staines with Sexton converting two. The full Huddersfield lineup was: Flanagan; Jagger, Gagai, Wrench, Halsall; Lolohea, Clune (c); King, Woolford, Rogers, Hewitt, Dunford, Rushton. Interchanges: Powell, Greenwood, Cozza, Geyer: Rush. Catalans named: Staines; Darrelatour, Cotric, Cellier, Makinson; Sexton, Dodd; Allen, Da Costa, Maria, Rogers-Smith, Lipowicz, Garcia (c). Interchanges: Bousquet, Condon, Leeming, Lis: Tison.
Huddersfield head coach Jim Lenihan said: "If someone had offered me 42-20 before kick-off, I'd certainly have taken it. Three weeks ago people were questioning whether we'd win another game this year and now we've won three in a row, which is nice. "But we still have a lot to do. The second half shows that and we probably didn't come back out in the second half, but we're really happy with how we're tracking. "It's a bit of an evolution and we're slowly getting better. Last week we scored early and struggled with that. This week we scored early and were able to get through to half-time. "Then after half-time, once the game was pretty much put to bed, we struggled to keep in contact at that point. It's more mental than anything else, but I'm so happy for the guys."
Huddersfield remain bottom of the Super League despite the win; the club’s stated target is to avoid collecting the wooden spoon and they aim to still be a Super League side when they move to Dewsbury next year.
