The Huddersfield Giants took an almighty step towards fulfilling a Wembley dream by securing a thrilling 24-8 Tetley’s Challenge Cup fifth-round triumph over Super League champions Leeds Rhinos.

Despite the 61st-minute dismissal of centre Joe Wardle, the Giants were the dominant force throughout a gripping encounter.

When Wardle received his marching orders for punching opposite number Carl Ablett, the Giants were already 18-4 ahead.

And even with a man down for the final quarter they had relatively little trouble finding the defensive resolve to keep their visitors at bay.

There were certainly numerous occasions during the 80 minutes when the Giants’ defence was put under intense pressure.

But every time coach Paul Anderson’s men were able to come up with the right answers to leave Leeds frustrated – and beaten.

On this form, it’s unlikely any of the clubs remaining for the quarter-final draw (whenever the BBC finally gets around to announcing when that will be later in the week!) would fancy a tie against the in-form Giants.

Besides their rock-solid defensive showing, they also displayed a very impressive cutting attacking edge, punishing every error the Rhinos made in clinical fashion.

England centre Leroy Cudjoe led the way on his 150th Giants appearance by scoring two of Huddersfield’s four tries, while Shaun Lunt, who played on loan for Leeds at Wembley last August before helping them to Grand Final glory at Old Trafford, was also on the scoresheet, along with Wardle.

The 21-year-old centre’s first-half try will no doubt have cushioned the blow of being sent off for the first time in his professional career.

And it will certainly be interesting to see how his punching spree is viewed by the RFL disciplinary panel if they take a look at his badly-bruised left eye, which came off second best to a knee in the incident that triggered his response.

Put it this way, the swelling that appeared post-match did little to enhance young Joe’s looks.

But that’s all for another day.

Yes, the Wardle incident may have taken some of the gloss off an outstanding Giants triumph – but not that much, seeing as there was just so much to admire from what has to rate as one of Huddersfield’s finest hours in the modern era.

At the heart of a magnificent team effort was, inevitably, captain Danny Brough, who must have once more caught the eye of watching England coach Steve McNamara.

His kicking game was yet again far more effective than opposite number Kevin Sinfield, who appears almost nailed-on for a key England half-back role for this autumn’s World Cup – at the expense of Brough.

And it wasn’t long before the Giants skipper’s boot was working its magic, causing Leeds full-back Zak Hardaker to make a hash of a towering kick inside his own 20m area.

From the subsequent scrum, Shaun Lunt strolled through two wooden defenders from dummy half for the game’s first try.

Brough, who had opened the scoring with a penalty goal after Danny McGuire had been pulled up for a high tackle on Giants prop Eorl Crabtree, added the conversion to make it 8-0.

Huddersfield looked certain to score again when Crabtree took Luke Robinson’s pass to romp into space but Hardaker pulled off a magnificent tackle to bring the big man down.

It looked to be a crucial miss as Leeds turned defence into attack in an instant to score their first try.

Winger Kallum Watkins made a timely interception to take play up field and, although Brough got back to bring down McGuire in sight of the line, Huddersfield’s defence could not re-group in time and Rob Burrow got Watkins over from the next play.

Sinfield was wide with the conversion attempt and the Giants pulled away with two more tries before half-time.

Cudjoe sent Jermaine McGillvary haring down the wing and, although the winger was eventually halted after collecting his own kick, Brough and Brett Ferres managed to work the ball out wide from the next play to get Wardle over.

Then, as Leeds were pressing for a second try, Cudjoe snapped up Mitch Achurch’s careless offload and sprinted 90m for a glorious opportunist try, first shaking off Hardaker on halfway and then having enough speed and strength to touch down in the corner despite the best efforts of Ryan Hall.

As play continued to swing from end to end, McGuire got over the line but lost the ball in the act of grounding, while Huddersfield were also denied by video referee Steve Ganson, who ruled Jamie Cording had been held up over the line by the busy Hardaker.

The impressive second-row forward was adamant after the game he’d scored, but fortunately it didn’t matter in the final analysis.

The Rhinos came out firing at the start of the second half, but the magnificent Giants defence crucially held out, with fantastic last-ditch efforts denying Jamie Peacock and McGuire.

Brough gave his side extra breathing space with a 48th-minute penalty goal and was at the heart of a tremendous defensive effort as Huddersfield maintained their grip on the contest.

Cording might have put the result beyond doubt but he failed to take Murphy’s difficult pass with the tryline beckoning.

Leeds’ flagging hopes were briefly revived with Wardle’s dismissal but they were finally ended when Cudjoe made a timely interception to break up a particularly dangerous-looking attack.

The Rhinos used their man advantage to create an overlap for Watkins to score his second try 11 minutes from the end but, fittingly, the impressive Cudjoe had the final say when he swooped on McGuire’s pass to grab his second try and Brough kicked his fourth goal.

What an end to a fantastic game!