CRISIS? What crisis?
After a demoralising three months, the Giants put all their woes well and truly behind them with a sparking triumph over fourth-placed Catalan Dragons.
The performance was in stark contrast to those in the previous weeks as Huddersfield suffered nine defeats in their last 10 Super League fixtures.
It was, of course, the first win under new head coach Paul Anderson following failed attempts in his opening two games in charge against Wakefield and St Helens.
And, judging by the stunning events of yesterday at the newly-named John Smith’s Stadium, there’s no reason whatsoever why Anderson’s men won’t back it up with a second successive victory at Salford City Reds on Friday night.
As soon as the Giants began to build up a lead, the confidence among the players just grew and grew and grew.
Ok, the Dragons did finish with a flourish to reduce the deficit from 36-6 after 55 sensational minutes to 36-18 at the close.
Yet that hardly seemed to matter, with the Giants appearing as if they’d already had one eye on making it a double at the City of Salford Stadium in five days’ time.
After finally re-discovering their defensive resolve which had helped Huddersfield reach top spot three months ago and looking far slicker on attack, there really did seem to be a genuine feeling that everything was falling back into place.
Conceding those two late tries were just a minor annoyance.
Anderson largely kept faith with the side beaten 46-12 at St Helens last time out, although he was forced to make one late switch as David Fa’alogo came in for Larne Patrick, whose suffered a back spasm at the last minute and was immediately sent home to rest up.
But there were major changes on the wing, with Jermaine McGillvary (chest) and Aaron Murphy (ankle) returning. Luke George and Michael Lawrence filled those roles the week before.
There was also a switch from full-back to half-back for captain-for-the day Scott Grix, whose kick to the corner so nearly put McGillvary over for the opening try after six promising minutes and on the back of a dazzling attack.
Then a kick to the opposite corner from Tommy Lee – following a strong Eorl Crabtree burst – almost gave Murphy a score two minutes later. Instead the Dragons were forced to concede a drop-out.
But the Giants did deservedly hit the front after 12 minutes when Grix’ long cut-out pass found Leroy Cudjoe, who had the simple task of feeding McGillvary to stroll over. Danny Brough converted.
Click on the link below for a picture gallery from the Giants' win
Unfortunately, Catalan struck back against the run of play five minutes later when Remi Casty bounced out of Brough’s attempted tackle and charge over from 15m for Scott Dureau to add an excellent touchline conversion.
In previous games that would have spelled disaster, with heads starting to drop.
On this occasion, however, that wasn’t the case.
Just seconds after Cyril Stacul had pulled off an amazing tackle to deny Eden a try, the ball was swept to the right for Jason Chan’s pass out of the back door in a two-man tackle to put McGillvary over for his second. Again converted by Brough.
Strong Catalan defence was required to hold up Brett Ferres, Luke Robinson and David Fa'alogo on the tryline on the 30-minute mark as the Giants continued to produce by far the best work
And three minutes later that pressure finally paid off as Grix collected close to the line from another Chan offload and jinked past two markers before diving over for a third converted score.
A knock-on from a Dureau kick denied Vincent Duport a second try for the visitors three minutes before the break, and the hosts took full advantage as they extended their lead to 24-6 on the stroke of half-time when the ball was worked to the left for Lee Gilmour to feed Murphy for a well-earned try, which Brough converted magnificently from the touchline.
It was without question the Giants’ best opening 40 minutes for months.
And the good work continued after the break as Huddersfield again started the stronger.
As a result, it was no surprise when they further extended their lead in the 51st minute when Fa’alogo crashed over from close range after some more exquisite approach play.
Brough again added the extras and was at it once more four minutes later to push the lead out to 30 points.
This time Grix was the architect, sending out a long pass to Gilmour, who juggled the ball before falling over the tryline.
The League points were already in the bag.
But the Dragons refused to wave the white flag and added two further converted scores of their own through Daryl Millard and Damien Blanch.
It was never going to be enough, however.
This was the Giants’ day!
