DAVID HODGSON was the toast of the Giants after scoring his first Huddersfield hat trick as coach Nathan Brown’s men secured a thrilling 26-24 triumph at Castleford Tigers.
Just eight days earlier, the 27-year-old former Great Britain winger had suffered a torrid time at the hands of Hull.
But Hodgson’s response couldn’t have been any better, grabbing two first-half tries and one in the second as the Giants made it a magnificent seven away Super League victories on the trot.
It was also a third triumph in five top-flights starts as the men from the Galpharm denied the in-form Tigers four Super League wins in a row for the first time in seven years.
Castleford looked capable of reaching that mark during a dominant 15-minute opening spell as they deservedly led 12-6.
But the dogged and determined Giants demonstrated superior finishing to nudge in front by the break.
And they also then defended superbly despite being reduced to 12 men through the sin-binning of Leroy Cudgoe to clinch a third away win of the season.
Huddersfield, who gave a debut to 20-year-old back row forward Larne Patrick after David Faiumu pulled out with a leg strain on the eve of the game, made a dream start with a try after just 23 seconds.
They collected the ball from their own kick-off thanks to a lovely piece of opportunism from hooker Scott Moore.
That caught the Castleford defence unawares and Luke Robinson and Kevin Brown linked superbly in a set-piece move to send second rower Jamahl Lolesi through a yawning gap.
Unshaken, the Tigers attacked with confidence gained from consecutive wins against Wigan Warriors, Salford City Reds and Catalans Dragons and struck back with two tries in a four-minute spell.
A break down the left by winger Richard Owen set up the position for former Giants centre James Evans to cross on the right, courtesy of Brent Sherwin’s long pass, and then prop Craig Huby took Ryan Hudson’s pass from dummy half to crash over by the posts.
Kirk Dixon added both conversions to put the home side 12-6 up.
But Huddersfield responded in the best possible fashion against the run of play in the 15th minute when left winger Hodgson easily won the race to Brown’s perfectly-weighted kick to the corner.
Castleford dominated the rest of the half, with Sherwin pulling the strings to telling effect, but they failed to add to their score as the Giants’ defence continued to work overtime.
Centre Michael Shenton got to the line but was turned on his back by defender Cudjoe and Stephen Wild managed to get his hand under the ball, while second rower Brett Ferres suffered the misfortune of dropping the ball over the line as Lawrence challenged.
The misses began to look costly when Brown and Brett Hodgson combined to get David Hodgson over for his second try five minutes before the break.
And the ex-Halifax, Wigan and Salford winger completed his hat trick eight minutes into the second half following superb work from Cudjoe.
Brett Hodgson’s second conversion put his side 20-12 in front.
But the visitors spent the next 10 minutes camped inside their own half and the pressure told when the Tigers touched down twice in four minutes.
Full-back Ryan McGoldrick got Huby over for his second try and, when Brett Hodgson’s restart went out on the full, Ferres made up for his earlier blunder by crossing wide out to tie the scores.
But Brett Hodgson then hit back to take a decisive hand in determining the outcome of the match, first pulling off a last-ditch tackle to deny Owen before forcing his way over from dummy half for the Giants’ fifth try.
The drama continued when Cudjoe was sin-binned for holding Rangi Chase down in the tackle and Castleford immediately made their numerical advantage pay by working the ball out wide for Ferres to score his second try.
Dixon had a chance to tie the scores but his difficult conversion attempt drifted wide.
Brown fluffed a glorious chance to wrap up Huddersfield’s win when he raced 60m after intercepting Sione Faumuina’s kick and his attempted pass to the supporting Paul Whatuira went straight into touch.
But the visitors hung on for a victory that could not have been harder earned.
