Super League: Scott Grix scored a hat-trick to help Huddersfield beat Wakefield 44-14

Scott Grix: On his way to score his second try against Wakefield

Full-back Scott Grix made history with the quickest hat-trick from the start of a Super League match as Huddersfield beat Wakefield 44-14 on Sunday.

The Giants, who began the season with three straight defeats, never looked back after former Wakefield player Grix's three tries inside the first nine minutes helped put them 18-0 up and on their way to a fourth successive win at Belle Vue.

Wakefield hit back to close the gap to four points early in the second half but further tries from two other Wakefield old boys, Danny Brough and Brett Ferres, plus others from Leroy Cudjoe and Ukuma Ta'ai, helped the visitors to a
comfortable 44-14 victory.

It was a fourth straight defeat for the Wildcats, who had started the season with so much hope after gaining back-to-back wins, and drops them to the foot of the table.

The match was memorable for Grix's early heroics but little else as both sides produced a string of errors to leave both coaches frustrated.

The record for the fastest hat-trick of tries scored from the start of any match remains with Huddersfield's former player and current assistant coach Chris Thorman, who scored his within six minutes and 54 seconds of the Giants' National League Cup semi-final against Doncaster in 2002.

Grix got his first after just 63 seconds after Brough had put second rower Ferres into a gap and finished off a flowing move for his second four minutes later.

The former Wakefield full-back then gathered possession from Craig Hall's kick 20 metres from his own line and sprinted 80 metres for a glorious solo try to complete his treble.

Brough kicked all three conversions to make it 18-0 but Wakefield, who gave debuts to centre Joe Arundel and forward George Griffin, gradually weathered the storm and scored two tries of their own in a nine-minute spell midway through
the first half.

Centre Dean Collis got the first after Huddersfield winger Aaron Murphy had made a hash of Tim Smith's high kick while veteran second rower Ali Lauititii proved impossible to tackle as he got skipper Danny Kirmond over.

Hall was wide with both conversion attempts to leave the Wildcats trailing by 10 points, which is how it stayed until half-time despite both teams creating a host of chances.

Wakefield winger Chris Riley had a try disallowed early in the second half but there was no denying substitute Jordan Crowther when he was the first to reach the ball from Paul McShane's grubber kick.

Hall's first goal cut the gap to just four points but Huddersfield were soon back in the ascendancy, with Ferres marking the 250th appearance of his career with their fourth try after taking Brough's short pass near the line.

Brough kicked his sixth conversion before handing over the goalkicking duties to his half-back partner Jamie Ellis, who wrapped up the scoring with a penalty and conversion of Ta'ai's injury-time touchdown.