Brett Hodgson has praised the defensive resilience of his side in their gritty victory over Huddersfield Giants.
The Black & Whites made it back to back victories for the first time this season as the ground out a 14-6 win over the West Yorkshire side at the MKM Stadium yesterday afternoon.
Tries from Mitieli Vulikijapani and Andre Savelio were enough for Hodgson’s side to claim victory, who put in a resolute defensive performance.
Speaking after the match, Hodgson said: “It feels good to have back to back wins. We were far from clinical with the ball, but we kept turning up for each other in defence. Huddersfield are a good team, they aren’t towards the top of the table for no reason.
“We had to defend too much at times but I’m so proud of the effort.
“They didn’t throw a lot at us in terms of shape because we defended so well. Our ruck control was good for the most part. They got a couple of six again which I aren’t sure why they were given. But we had some good hunt and pressure from the inside which nullified their attacking threat.
“Gareth Ellis game planned them really well and we knew what they were going to throw at us. Overall, we have somethings to work on offensively, but defensively we were sound.
Praising some individual performances, Hodgson added: “Manu was really strong, and Laney contributed despite only having trained once this week. I was impressed with both of them on their return to action.
“Andre made some brilliant defensive contributions. He was physical and willing to do his part for the team.
And for some of those less senior players, the game time those boys got at the back end of last season is really paying off now. Mitch went really well and Ben McNamara is showing some real maturity.”
Summing up his side’s season so far, having won four from six games, he continued: “I’m still disappointed with the Castleford performance, we had the balance wrong that day and we hurt from that one, but we’ve picked ourselves up with two rewarding performance off the back of that.
“We’re in a reasonable position but there’s more to give from us.”
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