Disappointed Rick Stone knows his players have to start respecting their possession if they are to get back into the winning Super League groove.

An unacceptable error count proved the Giants’ downfall in Friday’s 28-12 home defeat to second-placed Leeds Rhinos.

They looked well placed to go on to win the contest after recovering from an early 10-0 deficit to lead 12-10 midway through the opening period thanks to tries from Ukuma Ta’ai and Jermaine McGillvary.

Huddersfield’s cause wasn’t helped by the loss of attacking lynchpin Danny Brough to the sin bin early in the second half after he came to blows with Carl Ablett, who was also yellow-carded.

But Stone admits the subsequent loss of fluency was just one of the failings that needs to be addressed ahead of Friday’s trip to Castleford Tigers.

“The game was a real disappointment,” said Stone.

“We were in the contest for the majority of the game. We started a little bit slow but we got on even terms.

“The Danny Brough sin bin didn’t help our cause, but I still thought there were some tries there if we could hang on to the ball, but we made 10 second-half errors which makes it tough to win matches. We didn’t give ourselves a chance.

“If you are to get that chance, you’re probably looking at trying to keep it down to five errors each half, which will give you a completion rate of around 75%. Against Leeds it was about 40%.

“So, hopefully, we’ll get back up those acceptable levels against Castleford on Friday.

“We did defend our line really strongly in the second half and Leeds gave us some respect by kicking a couple of penalty goals. But, overall, they managed the game better than us at the crucial times.”

Huddersfield’s teenage full-back Darnell McIntosh had an impressive first half but came up with a series of errors which proved costly as the home side attempted to rescue the game towards the end, although Stone wasn’t blaming him for the loss.

“Darnell showed plenty of courage but made a couple of errors,” Stone said. “It’s a learning curve for the young fella.”