Dwelling followers had excessive hopes heading into this Yorkshire derby with interim coach Liam Finn having a squad that was near full energy and morale-boosting victories of their earlier two matches.
When Leeds started sloppily, with Lachie Miller kicking lengthy, the Giants punished them as George King pressured his manner over for his first strive of the season with simply 62 seconds on the clock.
It was a false daybreak for the jubilant residence supporters as Leeds ran in 5 tries with out reply to take the sport away from the Giants earlier than half-time.
Croft was first on the scoresheet, and after extra sloppy defence from the restart, Jarrod O’Connor scampered over from dummy half to place Leeds in entrance.
Huddersfield didn’t assist themselves with some comfortable defence, lacking a staggering 51 tackles within the match, however the Rhinos have been irrepressible, finishing their units, transferring the ball swiftly and threatening on each assault.
The house aspect weren’t helped when Sam Halsall, again for his first recreation after six weeks out with a hamstring harm, needed to be helped off with a calf downside simply 16 minutes.
James McDonnell’s move out of the again of his hand despatched Jack Chook over, Ryan Corridor picked up his 250th strive in a Leeds shirt because the Giants defence malfunctioned once more, and Miller chipped, chased and touched down for one more.
The Giants gave themselves a glimmer of hope with Jacob Douglas’ advantageous end within the nook simply earlier than the break, however they shot themselves within the foot once more as Taane Milne, injured within the build-up to that strive, robotically failed a head harm evaluation for not sporting a compulsory mouthguard.
Leeds piled on the distress as Cam Smith went over after which a 40/20 kick from Jake Connor, who additionally kicked eight conversions, introduced area place from which Croft nabbed his second strive.
Three minutes later Croft scored his third, earlier than Jacob Gagai’s fourth strive in his previous 5 video games gave the forlorn Giants followers one thing to cheer.
It barely interrupted the procession as Tremendous League’s prime try-scorer Maika Sivo lastly obtained in on the act for his fifteenth of the season, and Croft stepped and scampered for his fourth earlier than Olly Russell added a late comfort strive.
