Huddersfield Giants began their Super League season with a narrow victory over Challenge Cup holders Leigh Leopards in a fractious game.
Tries from Esan Marsters and Adam Milner gave Giants a slim half-time advantage, with Leigh replying through Josh Charnley in a bitty opening 40.
The second half was a battle of attrition in soggy conditions, although Elliot Wallis extended Giants’ lead.
Tom Briscoe scored a try to set up a tense finale, but Huddersfield held on.
Hopes that the quality-packed sides taking to the field at a damp Leigh Sports Village would deliver a spectacle to match the anticipation of the new season were unfortunately never realised.
This instead was a game of needle, rare moments of quality punctuated by blow-ups and spats across the field that threatened to boil over with frequency.
Leigh were hampered by the loss of hooker Edwin Ipape to a knee injury, but could only blame themselves for the sin-binnings of John Asiata and Ricky Leutele – practically tag-teaming themselves on to the bench either side of half-time – which left the hosts short-handed in their bid to reduce arrears.
While the conditions were the enemy of handling, the lack of discipline meant referee Jack Smith was kept busy handling two fired-up packs.
There were some moments of class: Jake Connor cutely patting down an Olly Russell chip for Marsters to score, while Matt Moylan threaded a beautiful kick for Charnley to ghost in to dot down.
Having seen his side survive countless moments of Leigh pressure thanks to dogged defending, winter arrival Wallis nudged the scoreboard on to give Giants boss Ian Watson sight of victory.
Eventually, the home pressure told as Briscoe powered over in the corner, but it was as good as Adrian Lam’s side got in the second half for their season to begin in defeat.
Huddersfield head coach Ian Watson told BBC Radio Leeds:
“I thought we were really good, gritty defence, both teams made a few errors but the way we backed it up defensively was a credit to the guys out there, they played as a team.
“We spoke about being more hungry to work hard for each other, the boys did that today, the middles were phenomenal, they were set for set, we’d make an error and they had to go set for set again. The work they did was outstanding.
“Leigh have got some good players, guys like Lachlan Lam, Matt Moylan and John Asiata, they test you. Once you did something they did something else to break you down but our guys stood up to the test.”
Leigh head coach Adrian Lam told BBC Radio Manchester:
“I’m very disappointed, you have your whole preseason to set up for that, we’ve been really good at it for four months of it but there were too many errors tonight and put ourselves under pressure with low completions and indiscipline.
“I thought Huddersfield were really great tonight, they had plenty of energy and kept it really simple and did every thing right so full credit to them.
“You want to win your first game at home, we’ve strengthened our team but the first six rounds are sometimes a poke in the dark and you’ve got to do your best to get through.
“In those situations when we’re not completing high or making a lot of errors, we can’t do that in this competition. It’s a rough start but we’ll be ok.”
Leigh: O’Brien; Briscoe, Hardaker, Leutele, Charnley; Moylan, Lam; Amone, Ipape, Mulhern, O’Donnell, Hughes, Asiata.
Interchanges: Norman, Davis, Halton, Nakubuwai
Sin-bin: Asiata (33), Leutele (44).
Huddersfield: Connor; Swift, Marsters, Naiqama, Wallis; Clune, Russell; Hill, Milner, Ikahihifo, Murchie, Hewitt, Cudjoe.
Interchanges: Golding, English, Wilson, Salabio.
Referee: Jack Smith.
