The Giants stuttered and stumbled to victory to end their two-match losing Super League run.

But this game was as much about the confirmed relegation of Bradford Bulls after they made their hosts battle all the way for the two league points in a frustratingly error-strewn contest.

Despite Huddersfield going into the contest as red-hot favourites to take the honours, no-one had told the Bulls, who never once looked as if they were about to show the Super League white flag.

As a result, it was only in the final quarter that the Giants could start to breathe a collective sigh of relief as they finally saw off their dogged and determined West Yorkshire rivals, with Jermaine McGillvary leading the way with a hat trick of tries.

To say it was a poor quality first half would be an understatement, with error after effort from both sides.

The source of almost every score was a mistake and left both sets of supporters with a somewhat unsatisfactory taste in the mouth.

It was certainly slightly more palatable for the hosts, however, who went in at the break with a 26-16 lead.

And any thoughts the Bulls would simply roll over and suffer their relegation fate were washed away in their opening 24 minutes as they held the lead on three separate occasions.

Huddersfield Giants (52) v Bradford Bulls (26) - Ukuma Ta'ai.
Huddersfield Giants (52) v Bradford Bulls (26) - Ukuma Ta'ai.

Former Giants winger Luke George crossed twice and Adam O’Brien also scored, with Jamie Foster landing two of the conversions, although all three efforts came on the back of schoolboy Huddersfield errors.

The first of those came from Jake Connor, who did at least quickly make amends by scoring his side”s opening try by showing good strength to barge over from 10m.

Leroy Cudjoe, who was in charge of the goalkicking to protect Danny Brough’s still-painful ankle, was unable to add the extras, but was successful with his next three kicks to edge his side ahead for the

first time in the 36th minute.

His first success came after Jermaine McGillvary’s strong drive to the line was spoiled by an impossible offload that the Bulls collected before spilling possession for themselves on the next play for Ukuma Ta’ai to collect and crash over.

A Cudjoe break from deep created Giants’ try No3, with the supporting Luke Robinson finishing off.

That’s levelled the scores for the third time in the 27th minute before a strong Brett Ferres run set up Chris Bailey to score his third try in two games from the hooker position and then a towering Brough kick was palmed back by Cudjoe for McGillvary to pick up and stroll over.

The half-time break brought little change in the quality of the play, with Brett Kearney scoring in the corner after an error from the Giants’ first set.

Huddersfield Giants (52) v Bradford Bulls (26)
Huddersfield Giants (52) v Bradford Bulls (26)

An amazing Ta’ai charge almost brought a home try moments later, with McGillvary then failing to ground a Brougn kick through some quality Bulls defensive work.

But they did cross in the 48th minute when former Bulls man Ferres touched down in heavy traffic from close range.

Unfortunately, the errors kept on coming and it took until the 63rd minute for the Giants to extend their lead when former Bradford centre Joe Wardle stole the ball off George one-on-one and race 80m to finish under the posts.

That seemed to knock the stuffing right out of the Bulls, with Cudjoe feeding McGillvary to score his second thee minutes later, and the centre also provided a great pass to send his winger charging away for his treble against the club where he made his Super League debut.

That made it 48-20 and it was game well and truly over, although the brave Bulls continued to battle on and Kearney grabbed his second converted score.

But the hosts had the final say when Ta’ai crashed over for his second to bring up the half-century of points for the third time this season against Bradford.

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