Leeds Rhinos 13 Huddersfield Giants 12 - It’s a case of deja vu for Leeds Rhinos, Huddersfield Giants and Luke Gale

The fightback was less spectacular than last month, when they won 27-26 in extra-time, after being 20 points down with 13 minutes left.

This time it was 10-0 at the break and Gale sealed a 13-12 success with five minutes left, but the victory was equally hard fought in another see-saw battle.

Giants totally controlled the first half, despite losing Matty English to the sin-bin and then Adam O’Brien who was taken off on a spinal board after a very long stoppage for treatment on the field.

Leeds’ only real attack came via three repeat sets and a penalty in the lead-up to English’s yellow card, but other than that - though they defended solidly - they weren’t at the races.

Huddersfield could have been further than 10 points up at the break, but Rhinos pulled a converted try back at the start of the second period and went ahead just before the hour.

Giants quickly levelled and it was 12-12 until Gale landed a one-pointer at the third attempt.

Overall, Leeds deserved it, scoring two tries to one and having four touchdowns ruled out.

Rhinos had a disrupted build-up, which included Wednesday’s training session being cancelled and players having to drop out due to a coronavirus scare, after a family member of one of them showed signs of the illness.

A pre-match statement from Rhinos said seven players had been stood down, though presumably that was from the wider squad as only six named in the initial 21 did not feature.

The players concerned were not identified, but Matt Prior, Rhyse Martin and Alex Mellor - who was due to return from injury - were among those missing and would certainly have featured if available. Callum McLelland, Luke Briscoe and Tom Holroyd were the others.

It all amounted to three of the 17 who beat Salford Red Devils two weeks ago not playing - and Rhinos had two first-choice players, substitutes James Donaldson and Konrad Hurrell, returning from injury.

Adam Cuthbertson was called into the starting line-up, though looked to still be struggling from his recent back injury and on-loan Brett Ferres took a place on the bench.

Ideal preparation it certainly wasn’t, but Leeds’ 17 was strong enough to win the game, if they played well.

In the first 40, that wasn’t the case. Giants caught Rhinos napping after only four minutes when English powered over - on the last play of a penalty set - from O’Brien’s pass and Oliver Russell converted.

That was the only try of the first 40, but Huddersfield were the only side who posed a sustained threat, amid all the stoppages which included a change of referee.

Leeds should have done much better when English was sin-binned for persistent infringements, but the only scoring during his spell on the naughty step was a penalty goal for Huddersfield.

To be fair, Donaldson was held up over the line seconds after English departed and in the same set Ash Handley crossed, but Gale’s pass was ruled forward.

Wilson extended Huddersfield’s advantage by two after a late challenge by Brad Dwyer on Adrian Sezar and Leeds had an escape when a line drop out did not go 10 metres, but Giants tapped the penalty in front of the posts and Sam Hewitt knocked on just short.

Four minutes before the break Giants did take the two after Leeds were penalised for not being set at marker.

On 45 minutes Giants’ defence failed to deal with a kick by Dwyer - who was excellent off the bench - and the replacement hooker picked up to send Hurrell over.

Gale landed a touchline conversion and Leeds got over the line for the third time soon afterwards, but Rob Lui’s pass to Dwyer was ruled forward.

With 23 minutes left Tom Briscoe slid over from Myler’s pass after a nice combination with Lui and Gale’s kick, from the opposite touchline to his first, nosed Rhinos ahead, though only briefly.

Wilson levelled at the start of the final quarter after being tackled high by Lui.

Giants lost possession from the restart and Harry Newman got over from acting-half. Child indicated a try, but was overruled by video assistant Liam Moore, who awarded a penalty instead, for a ball steal.

Gale’s kick went wide and he was also off-target with a drop goal attempt in the next set, as was Sezar with nine minutes to go.

Gale missed a second attempt, but made it third time lucky with five minutes left, going early in the count.

Leeds appeared to have sealed it when Myler went over in the next set, but Moore spotted a fumble.

Myler made a brilliant try-saving tackle on Sezar two minutes from time after the Aussie had kicked and regathered.

Referee Scott Mikalauskas – apparently having lost his voice – was replaced by James Child during the stoppage caused by O’Brien’s injury.

The final penalty count was seven-four to Giants, but Leeds had six set restarts to Huddersfield’s five.

In the night’s other game, reiging champions St Helens beat rapidly-improving Hull KR thanks to a golden point extra-time drop goal scored by half-back Theo Fages. The match had finished 20-20 after 80 minutes.