THE jury is still out after the Giants' only pre-season match ahead of Super League X.

It's impossible to judge after this contest at Bradford Bulls exactly how well coach Jon Sharp's squad are shaping up as the opening clash at Leigh on February 12 draws closer.

A final scoreline of 50-30 to the home side is obviously alarming, particularly from the defensive perspective.

And clearly the defence will be the main area of concentration in the next two weeks.

But how much should anyone really read into this match?

While Bulls coach Brian Noble named a side that could easily take to the field for the start of their Super League campaign, the same cannot be said of coach Jon Sharp's opening line-up.

For starters, centre James Evans and hooker Brad Drew will come straight into the side after being forced to withdraw on the eve of the trip to Odsal.

Evans pulled a calf muscle in Saturday's training run and Drew was sent home from the same session with flu - something which has also struck down another main man in Michael De Vere, although he is still a month away from playing due to his knee injury.

Then on top of all that, in the opening quarter against the Bulls, the Giants lost Chris Nero with a dead leg and Stuart Jones was forced off with a heavy bang to the head.

Thankfully, Jones came back late in the second half, but with so many key absentees, Huddersfield were always facing an uphill battle.

Yet that still didn't prevent them from making a positive impression for much of the opening half.

With stand-off Chris Thorman immediately pulling the strings in attack and Stanley Gene causing considerable havoc out wide in the centres, the Giants more than held their own in the first quarter.

They recovered from conceding a seventh-minute try to Karl Pryce, which Paul Deacon converted in a tally of seven goals from nine, to stamp some authority on the contest.

By the 14th minute the visitors were level when Nero drove strongly to the line to create the position for Gene to plunge over from acting half-back.

Thorman made no mistake in a perfect five out of five haul, and the signs were encouraging.

It nearly got much better four minutes later when Karl Pryce was forced to use all his pace to deny Gene after the Papua New Guinean kicked the ball towards the Bulls line.

But as the Giants began to make the first of numerous interchanges to give as many players as possible valuable gametime - they made around 20 to Bradford's half-dozen or so - some of the momentum was lost.

In the 23rd minute, the Bulls once again kept the ball alive - a disturbing facet in the opening 40 minutes - for Pryce to score his second.

And after Sean Penkywicz lost the ball attempting to score in the 31st minute, the home side immediately went upfield for Andy Smith to score and make it 14-6.

Huddersfield again responded well and six minutes later cut the deficit as Thorman's superb long pass sent St Hilaire over.

The Giants would have been happy to settle for a 14-12 interval scoreline, but on the stroke of half time Iestyn Harris set up Stuart Reardon for a crucial score.

That lead was increased within four minutes of the restart as Stuart Fielden crashed over before St Hilaire forced a mistake from Deacon with a bone-crunching tackle and kicked ahead to touch down.

It was 26-18 and the contest was still hanging firmly in the balance.

Unfortunately, it was then that everything fell off the Giants' rails.

With Noble keeping all his `big guns' on the field, they almost inevitably began to cut loose.

Thanks to a combination of smart play and lucky bounces, Bradford added further tries from Karl Pryce to complete his hat trick, Leon Pryce, Deacon and Paul Johnson to bring up the 50-point mark.

Only then did Noble bring on his fringe first-teamers and rest frontline players.

And the result was a superb Giants' finale.

Stuart Donlan - starting at full-back instead of Paul Reilly, who was on the bench - set the ball rolling in the 74th minute, collecting the ball on his own line and slicing through the chasing pack before sending Gene away.

After Gene had been stopped, the ball was swept out for Paul White to finish in the corner.

And two minutes later Ben Roarty showed great pace to put his side straight back onto attack, eventually enabling Thorman and Gene to combine to send Paul Jackson charging over.

The final result may not have gone according to plan, but the finish had to be savoured.