Huddersfield's Jermaine McGillvary couldn't prevent Leeds's Joel Moon from scoring a try
Defending champions Leeds beat fellow strugglers Huddersfield 20-16 to earn their first victory of the new Super League season and keep the Giants pointless.
Both sides went in to the Headingley Carnegie meeting savaged by injuries and occupying the bottom two places in the table and the game proved to be true the form book. In the continued absence of Danny McGuire, the Rhinos lacked direction while Huddersfield could call upon the services of captain Danny Brough following injury.
But the nerveless kicking display of Jordan Lilley helped Leeds get their title defence up and running. Joel Moon gave Leeds a 10th-minute lead after good work by Ryan Hall but the winger's mistake gifted Jermaine McGillvary a try after Brough had pulled the Giants level.
Liam Sutcliffe scored following a period of Leeds pressure only for another error by Hall to give Michael Lawrence the chance to put Huddersfield back ahead. Jimmy Keinhorst, a half-time replacement for the injured Moon, scored the decisive try eight minutes from time and a Lilley penalty ensured the victory.
Brough's return was a big boost to Huddersfield and he underlined his influence on his side with a well-weighted kick inside the first five minutes by forcing a knock-on from Ash Handley.
The Giants failed to take advantage of the field position and fell behind when Zak Hardaker's cross-field kick found Hall who caught the ball and quickly offloaded to give the juggling Moon a finish in the corner, with Lilley adding the extras from the touchline.
Brough took advantage of some sloppy Leeds defending to coast over from dummy half and give Jamie Foster a simple conversion to level the scores. The rest of the opening 40 minutes was punctuated by penalties and errors compounded by the wet under foot conditions, with a misread by Hall from Brough's kick to the corner proving particularly costly as McGillvary caught the ball under no pressure to touch down.
Foster was again on target from the tee to give Huddersfield a 12-6 lead at the end of a first half to forget. Leeds came out firing at the start of the second forty but initially struggled to find a way through a solid Giants defensive line.
They finally broke through just before the hour mark when stand-off Sutcliffe spotted a gap and took advantage of poor tackling to slide over. Lilley held his nerve to make it 12-12 but Leeds found themselves under immediate pressure after Hall fumbled a routine kick.
Once again he was punished as Lawrence went over from Kruise Leeming's pass from dummy half to put Huddersfield back in front. But back came the Rhinos and they edged ahead after Keinhorst got a fingertip to Lilley's well-weighted kick and the scrum-half converted from out wide.
Lilley then gave Leeds a four-point cushion with a penalty and the hosts held on despite Hall dropping the ball with the line at his mercy in the dying minutes.
