CRUSADERS boss Iestyn Harris has admitted his side was lucky to still be in the contest against the Giants by half-time.

The Welshmen conceded two tries in the opening seven minutes and were 18-0 down by the 23rd.

But the Giants were also guilty of blowing a number of gilt-edged chances, which would have put them out of sight had they been taken.

And it was a fact not lost on the former Leeds Rhinos star.

“I thought we were lucky to be only 18-0 down at half-time,” said Harris.

“We should never have been in the position of having to chase the game.

“But our attitude wasn’t right and I had to have a talk with the players at half-time.

“Fortunately, they reacted positively to that and scored those two tries.

“Yet, as I said, we shouldn’t have been in that position in the first place.

“We paid the price for the poor way we approached this game.

“Huddersfield cut us open far too easily early on down the middle, and we were just fortunate they didn’t make us pay much more, because they could have done.”

Harris was also concerned at his side’s lack of discipline, with the Crusaders hammered 19-7 in the penalty count.

“We gave away a lot more penalties than they did, and that just puts extra pressure on you,” he added.

“If you consistently give away penalties then you end up defending your line more and leaking points.

“It’s clearly something we’ve got to address next week.”

Harris had two of his players sin-binned in the second period.

Richard Moore got 10 minutes for dropping on Luke Robinson in the 60th minute and Hep Cahill received the yellow card for a late challenge on Kevin Brown after he’d kicked the ball as the final hooter sounded.

And the Crusaders chief admitted he was disappointed with the Moore call.

“This is a technique Richard has used a number of time before and has never been penalised for it before, so I was a bit surprised about the sin-binning,” he continued.

“But I can’t comment about the other yellow, because I was following the ball and missed the challenge.

“I can only assume the incident wasn’t that serious, judging by the fact he just got the yellow card and not a red.

“At this stage, it’s just good to know that Kev Brown is okay.”