Huddersfield 26-4 Leigh: Lee Gaskell scores twice in Giants win

Match stats: Huddersfield 26-4 Leigh

Huddersfield tries: Gaskell (22, 47), Ta'ai (43), Cudjoe (74)
Huddersfield goals: Brough (22, 28, 43, 47, 74) 

Leigh tries: Drinkwater (57)

Match report

Lee Gaskell scored twice as Huddersfield wrecked Micky Higham's 500th appearance celebrations while securing the Giants' Super League status with a 26-4 victory over Leigh.

Former St Helens, Wigan and Warrington international hooker Higham began, and looks like ending, his distinguished career with the Centurions but their penultimate game of the scheduled season is unlikely to be one of his more cherished memories.

The fast-rising Giants, who had to stave off possible relegation through the Qualifiers last year, moved out of reach of chasing Warrington and went above Wigan with their fifth win in the last seven games.

Leigh are already certain to finish in the bottom two and to fight for their survival against the top Championship clubs. They are now struggling for momentum having lost their last four games.

The Yorkshire side, by contrast, have been defeated just once in their last seven games and had substitute Paul Clough reaching the lesser landmark of 200 senior games.

The Lancastrians made three changes after the previous week's defeat at Warrington, including the return of former Great Britain forward Gareth Hock after two months out with knee injury.

Higham, also playing his 350th Super League game, made the first half-break after less than two minutes but it was the in-form Giants who went on to make most of the running in a penalty-ridden opening few moments.

The deadlock was broken just after the midway point of the first half when Gaskell started and finished a neat right-wing move involving the deft handling of Leroy Cudjoe and leading try-scorer Jermaine McGillvary.

Danny Brough converted then added a 31st-minute penalty on his way to a total of five successful goal kicks.

Cory Paterson was held up over the line just before the break but that was as close as Leigh came as the Giants went in 8-0 ahead.

Ukuma Ta'ai increased the home side's advantage shortly after the restart when charging onto a short Kruise Leeming pass barely a metre out.

Moments later Adam Higson fumbled a high Brough bomb and Gaskell was quick to pounce and score, the two conversions helping the Giants to a four-score lead.

The Centurions grabbed a try back through Josh Drinkwater but the scorer's touchline conversion was wide of the target.

Both sides squandered further chances before a dazzling McGillvary break down centre-field led to Huddersfield wrapping up the game with a Cudjoe score which took the current Giants skipper past 500 career points.

Match reaction

Huddersfield boss Rick Stone on securing a place in the top eight: "I was always confident as most of the time we were a bit banged up with injuries and I felt once we got those players back it would help us. It started probably at the Magic Weekend with a bit of a rusty win over Catalans. We began to respect the process a bit more - the boys have bought into that and the last couple of months have been good."

On his side's 26-4 victory: "It was a tough, physical game and we showed some good resilience. We had most of the play in the first half, while in the second we had to defend a little more and found ourselves coming more off our own line.

"Our kicking wasn't at its best and we probably needed a bit more patience but we decided we wanted to play tough, defend well and we did that okay. Our goal is now to win as many games as we can and we have a few boys to come back from injury."

Leigh coach Neil Jukes blamed "sloppiness" for his team's inability to compete on the scoreboard: "I thought we turned up for one another and had a real dig but there were just too many silly scenarios which kept putting unforced pressure on ourselves. While the scoreline doesn't look great, to do the amount of defending we did shows that there's still a good work ethic within them but regarding smartness we probably get one out of 10."

On skipper Micky Higham after he completed his 500th career appearance: "To get to 500 games playing in the middle in top games shows unbelievable dedication. To maintain your spot at Warrington, St Helens and Wigan for so long shows what an incredible person Micky is and it's an unbelievable achievement and hopefully he's still got more to come."