Giants ease past Crusaders

David Hodgson helped himself to a hat-trick of tries as Huddersfield Giants strolled to a convincing 38-10 win over Crusaders in Wrexham.

Kevin Brown, Leroy Cudjoe, Scott Grix and Brad Drew also touched down for the Giants who remain in the thick of things at the top end of the Super League table after 12 rounds.

Weller Hauraki and Luke Dyer managed what ultimately proved consolation tries for the hosts but, in truth, they never looked like stopping their opponents.

The Welsh outfit failed to recover after being stung by two quick Giants scores within the first seven minutes and ended up well beaten.

First, stand-off Kevin Brown surged through the midfield to score Huddersfield's first next to the posts and Hodgson quickly grabbed his first shortly afterwards as he reacted quickest to chip to the corner to touch down.

Scrum-half Danny Brough converted both to give the Giants a 12-0 lead that they would not relinquish.

Crashed over

Crusaders did score next to reduce the deficit when second rower Weller Hauraki saw a gap in the visiting defence to crash over under the sticks.

But the Giants scored a crucial third try just before the interval as Cudjoe, replacing the absent Brett Hodgson at full-back, took a scoring pass from hooker Graeme Horne to cross the whitewash.

Any hopes Crusaders had of fighting their way back into the contest after the interval were crushed on 46 minutes as Huddersfield forged into a 24-6 lead as second rower Lee Gilmour raced past the home defence to set up replacement Scott Grix.

Brian Noble's side continued to work hard, but a number of handling errors undermined their cause as they knocked on at key moments.

They did, however, grab a second try when a kick-through to the corner saw centre Luke Dyer outpace the visiting cover to get the score.

But that was all the Crusaders could manage as Huddersfield again upped the pace as they cruised victory.

Another substitute, Brad Drew, was on hand to grab their fifth try of the match when he ran in unopposed to the posts.

Hodgson then sealed his hat-trick with two tries in the final eight minutes, both of them simple corner run-ins, with the Crusaders looking tired from their efforts.