BRANDON COSTIN put his injury nightmares behind him to inspire the Giants to a second win of the season over London Broncos.

A month ago it was Costin's kicks that helped Huddersfield secure a 30-6 victory down in the capital.

Since then, however, the Giants' Australian playmaker had managed just five minutes of action in the last four matches because of a hamstring injury - until the London return.

And what a comeback it proved to be!

With everyone outside the McAlpine expecting Costin to be sidelined for at least another week, his inclusion took the Broncos totally by surprise, and they at times had no answer to his vast attacking armoury.

The 30-year-old stand-off was on hand to produce two well-timed passes for James Evans to score twice in the opening half.

Then after the break, his superbly executed kick to the corner gave Marcus St Hilaire a walk-in.

On top of that, he landed four goals from six attempts and slotted over the drop goal that gave the Giants the lead for the first time in the 67th minute.

All in all, not a bad day's work!

And how much they needed his calming influence on proceedings.

Until Costin secured a firm second-half grip on the contest, the Broncos were always in with a sniff.

Yet with the former Canberra Raiders star organising his side well and kicking cleverly to keep London on the back foot, the Giants were able to tighten the screw in the final quarter.

And that was so pleasing to see after a first half dominated by the Broncos.

Despite lying second bottom of the table with three wins from their opening 16 matches the visitors posed a massive early threat.

After seven minutes they took the lead, albeit in controversial circumstances.

Dennis Moran's long pass on the sixth tackle to John Kirkpatrick appeared to travel yards forward.

That was the decision of the touchjudge, who was directly in line and immediately ruled out the score.

But he was astonishingly over-ruled by referee Ronnie Laughton and the try was given.

Liam Botham failed to add the extras, but was on target three minutes later with a try that couldn't be disputed.

Rob Jackson's break from deep ripped the Giants apart and enabled Moran to finish off to make it 10 points in as many minutes.

Huddersfield were stunned.

But, fortunately, Costin was on hand to settle the nerves and get his side finally ticking over.

In the 15th minute he combined cleverly with second-rower Paul Smith to send Evans racing in at the corner.

Then 10 minutes later his superb long pass enabled Evans to race clear and pushed off two defenders to score by the posts.

Costin added the extras and it was 10-10.

Yet at that stage the home side seemed unable to shake off their dogged opponents, and by the 33rd minute London had restored their 10-point advantage.

A long-range try from full-back Paul Sykes, who also landed the conversion and two penalties, made it 20-10 and the anxiety increased once again.

But just before the break the Giants were handed a massive psychological lift when Chris Nero stormed over from a short Stanley Gene pass to prove the contest was far from over.

The try was to signal one of the most one-sided second halves of Super League ever enjoyed by the Giants.

Apart from Sykes' 57th-minute penalty, London got nowhere near the Huddersfield 20.

That Sykes' effort had made it 22-20 after the Giants had drawn level with St Hilaire's first try of the game.

It was a score totally down to Costin, who initially made a powerful break and then kicked to the corner to give St Hilaire the easiest of tries, which Paul White converted.

But once Costin levelled the scores with a 62nd-minute penalty there was only going to be one winner.

Five minutes later Costin's drop goal put his side ahead for the first time and set up the victory charge, with two tries in the final eight minutes.

First to strike was Gene, who gleefully latched onto a short Moran drop-out and barged through two markers to score.

Then Gene turned provider, kicking cleverly for St Hilaire to grab his second off a well-weighted kick and wrap up the Giants' win ninth win.

* Huddersfield's Junior Academy side made it six wins out of six with a 24-18 victory over Wakefield. Full report tomorrow.