 Jamahl Lolesi tries to stop Kevin Sinfield in his tracks |
Huddersfield: (4) 10
Tries: Jensen, Robinson
Goals: Thorman
Leeds: (22) 30
Tries: Hall 2, Webb 2, Jones-Buchanan
Goals: Sinfield 4, Burrow
Brent Webb and young winger Ryan Hall scored two tries apiece as champions Leeds swept aside Huddersfield. Hall, who came in for Lee Smith, who scored twice against Hull KR last week, went over either side of the break on only his 10th appearance for the club.
Webb scored twice in the first half, following up grubber kicks from Matt Diskin and Danny McGuire.
All Huddersfield could manage were tries from Rod Jensen and debutant Luke Robinson, plus a Chris Thorman goal.
In front of their record home Super League crowd of 15,620, the Giants had four men making their debut but they struggled for long periods against the Super League champions.
After Webb gave Leeds the lead, Jensen quickly responded but Jamie Jones-Buchanan restored the Rhinos advantage before Hall sprinted 60 metres to touch down just before the interval after an offload from Ali Lauitiiti.
Hall then intercepted Kevin Brown's pass four minutes into the second half and raced the length of the field for a try.
Robinson gave Huddersfield brief hope of a comeback when he went over for a solo try on 63 minutes, but they had given themselves too much to do and Rob Burrow's late penalty extended the visitors margin of victory.
Huddersfield coach Jon Sharp:
"I'm really disappointed with our performance. We came off second best against a really good Leeds team.
"We were our own worst enemies. We didn't build any pressure, we pushed passes and got over-excited.
"Every time we got an opportunity, we squandered it, whereas every time Leeds got an opportunity they took it."
Leeds coach Brian McClennan:
"We're happy to get the win. We knew Huddersfield were going to be very excited about playing their first game and we were ready for a battle.
"They had a lot of gang-tackling in the first half which burnt up a lot of energy and we could see that. I was really pleased with our defence. Our ruck defence was excellent."
Huddersfield: Thorman, Elford, Whaturia, Wild, Jensen, Brown, Robinson, Crabtree, Hudson, Griffin, Lolesi, Snitch, Raleigh.
Replacements: Gatis, Skandalis, Mason, Cudjoe.
Leeds: Webb, Donald, Toopi, Senior, Hall, McGuire, Burrow, Leuluai, Diskin, Peacock, Jones-Buchanan, Ellis, Sinfield.
Replacements: Lauitiiti, Bailey, Kirke, Ablett.
Referee: Ian Smith (Rotherham)
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