Huddersfield Giants 18 Crusaders 12: Cudjoe ends patient Huddersfield's wait for play-off victory

The Giants trailed for most of the match, which was heading for sudden-death extra time when hooker Danny Brough picked up a stray Crusaders pass and sent centre Leroy Cudjoe on a 50-metre sprint for the winning try.

That came after the visitors had been reduced to 12 men with the sin-binning of Jordan James for a professional foul.

Huddersfield, who had lost all three of their previous play-off ties, deserved their victory, having scored three tries to one, but will need to improve their performance in the semi-finals at Warrington on Saturday if they are to keep alive their hopes of a maiden Grand Final appearance.

Apart from an early break from Castleford-bound winger Youngquest, the visitors barely troubled the second-best defence in the League in the first half, with Giants' Brett Hodgson solid as a rock at the back on his final home appearance.

Huddersfield always looked the more inventive side but were guilty of over elaboration or, in some cases, sheer carelessness with the greasy ball.

Lively scrum half Luke Robinson got to the line but was turned on his back by Clinton Schifcofske with help from Mark Bryant and the home side twice produced slick handling to release right winger Michael Lawrence only to lack the composure to finish off the breaks.

They forced a series of drop-outs to build pressure on the Crusaders line but the only try of the first half came against the run of play.

Rhys Hanbury intercepted a Brough pass meant for Cudjoe to race away.

Schifcofske landed the conversion, much to the delight of the Crusaders' colourful 1,000-strong support among the 5,869 crowd, and made it 8-0 just before half-time with a penalty after Huddersfield were caught offside.

The home side began their fightback within four minutes of the restart when Robinson burst through the first line of defence and had the pace to finish off his own break from 40 metres out.

Brett Hodgson's goal cut the deficit to two points and the Giants dominated the third quarter but still lacked the killer touch.

Schifcofske kept the visitors in front with a second penalty but their line was under siege for long periods and only a timely interception by Jarrod Sammut kept out David Hodgson.

The game then took a decisive turn on 69 minutes when Crusaders substitute James was given a yellow card by referee Ben Thaler for preventing the Giants from taking a quick tap.

Within three minutes Huddersfield were level when Darrell Griffin offloaded for Larne Patrick to score.

Brett Hodgson's conversion put the Giants in front for the first time but it was quickly all square when Huddersfield were caught offside and Schifcofske kicked his fourth goal. As the tension mounted, Brough picked up a loose ball on halfway and sent the supporting Cudjoe over for the all-important try.

Huddersfield: B. Hodgson, Cudjoe, Lawrence, Gilmour, D. Hodgson, Brown, Robinson, D. Griffin, Brough, Horne, Lunt, Fa'alogo, Wild. Substitutes: Crabtree, Kirmond, Faiumu, Patrick.

Crusaders: Schifcofske, Dyer, Martin, Mellars, Youngquest, Sammut, Hanbury, O'Hara, Withers, Bryant, Hauraki, Chan, Lupton. Substitutes: Lee, Winternstein, Trimarchi, James.

Referee: B Thaler (Wakefield).