A DOMINANT opening 40 minutes set the Giants on their way to an excellent second victory of their Super league XV season.

It was the perfect response to last week’s setback, also on the east coast at Hull FC, with Huddersfield producing the sort of rock-solid performance that had been at the heart of their 2009 success.

Although hosts Hull KR finished last season just one place below the Giants in fourth, they were completely and utterly outplayed by the men from the Galpharm.

And, even though David Hodgson deserves to hog the headlines with his well-taken hat trick, it was once again an excellent all-round team effort that made this stunning triumph possible.

Six tries to nil clearly sums up the way in which Huddersfield bossed the contest from start to finish.

But even though coach Nathan Brown will have been delighted to have seen his side run in half-a-dozen scores, it was probably the fact his side kept their hosts to zero that would have brought him the most cheer.

The Giants were obviously boosted ahead of the game by the return of inspirational captain Brett Hodgson after missing last week’s narrow defeat at Hull with a back strain and Shaun Lunt, who was fit to continue after initial fears he had suffered a broken left wrist at the KC Stadium.

But their last-minute preparations were still far from ideal, with heavy snow around the Huddersfield area making it touch and go as to whether all the players would dig themselves out of their houses in time to make it onto the team bus!

As a result, their start to the contest was far from polished, with the home side setting the early pace.

Only a great leap on his own line from Leroy Cudjoe after five minutes prevented Rovers from taking the lead after five minutes, and then the Robins ‘bombed’ a good chance a minute later.

But then, against the run of play, Man of Steel Hodgson began to take matters into his own hands.

Camped deep inside his own half, the full-back collected the ball and launched an amazing 40-20 to instantly turn defence in attack. From the scrum, Darrell Griffin took the drive to the line and Lunt was quickly in at half-back to stroll through an enormous gap to touch down under the posts for Hodgson to convert.

Rovers did threaten to find a way back when, following a break from halfway, Michael Lawrence scrambled back well to deny Peter Fox in the corner.

But from that moment on, the remainder of the half belonged solely to the Giants.

Within three minutes of that scare, the visitors had doubled their lead.

David Faiumu made good ground 40m out and fed Brett Hodgson, whose superb long, cut-out pass enabled namesake David to cross in the corner for his first try of the season. Hodgson then landed a magnificent touchline conversion, and Huddersfield were in control.

And that was reinforced five minutes later with try No2.

This time, Eorl Crabtree set the ball rolling, off-loading in heavy traffic on the Hull KR 40 for Larne Patrick to collect with his first touch since arriving from the substitutes’ bench, and he showed remarkable speed to cut through and burst over full-back Ben Cockayne’s attempt to tackle to dive over for a spectacular score.

Hodgson once again goaled, and at 18-0, the home fans were already voicing their disapproval over the way their favourites were performing.

The boos could have been even louder had Lunt not just failed to collect a pass under heavy pressure on the Rovers’ tryline in the last minute. But at 18-0, the Giants were more than happy with their opening 40 minutes’ work.

Rovers did start the second period with more purpose, forcing Nathan Brown’s men to have to defend strongly early on.

Click below for match photos.

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Huddersfield were able to relieve the pressure with long-range breaks from Luke Robinson and David Hodgson.

But it was a length-of-the-field run from the winger after 55 minutes that proved the most emphatic.

With Hull KR pressuring the Giants’ line, Michael Dobson’s long pass out 10m from the line was scooped out of the air by Hodgson, who raced away to finish in the corner.

On this occasion, Brett Hodgson failed to add the extras, but that fourth Huddersfield score clearly took the wind out of the Robins’ wings. The more the game went on, the more Rovers’ play deteriorated as they seemed completely incapable of breaking the solid Giants’ defensive wall.

And it was no surprise, therefore, when the visitors raced in for two tries in the final six minutes to underline their superiority.

In the 74th minute, Lee Gilmour raced away to put Hodgson over for his hat trick and four minutes later another Brett Hodgson cut-out pass sent Cudjoe strolling over in the opposite corner.

The fact Hodgson failed to land both conversions didn’t seem to matter.

This was an excellent win, full stop.