Rhinos defied difficult conditions – standing water and driving rain throughout – to play some good rugby at times, particularly in the third quarter when they scored half their eight tries.

McGuire called the shots, touching down either side of the break and being involved in Leeds' four other second-half tries.

Jamie Jones-Buchanan made a similar impression in the opening 40, when he scored a good try and helped create the other two.

Another player to impress was Gareth Ellis, benefiting from centre Clinton Toopi's return, which allowed him to move into his more familiar second-row role.

There was also a solid contribution from Brent Webb, who took his try tally for Leeds to 37 in his 50th appearance in blue and amber.

After a run of three defeats in four games, Rhinos relished the opportunity to regain some form and confidence, on both attack and defence.

But they had very little to beat against a disinterested Giants side who did nothing more than go through the motions.

Leeds boss Brian McClennan had mixed feelings afterwards, praising his team for the way they started the game, but admitting he was disappointed with their finish.

"In the first half we went pretty well, I was quite happy with that," he said.

"But I thought the second half was poor, both teams were poor. We've still got a lot of work to do, especially in being able to sustain pressure on a team.

"In the first half we kick-chased really well and took a lot of energy out of them by controlling our sets and getting kicks in.

"In the second half, both teams coughed the ball up a lot. We would have spilled it about eight times, Huddersfield probably more.

"It's not quality football. We scored a few tries at the start of the second half, then it just flattened out."

Leeds dominated from the 11th minute, when Scott Donald scored their opening try to wipe out Chris Thorman's early penalty goal for the visitors.

Rob Burrow began the move, sending Jones-Buchanan away. He supplied Webb, whose pass was batted down by Giants winger Martin Aspinwall, Burrow hacked the ball on and Donald won the race to touch down, Sinfield landing the first of his seven conversions.

Nine minutes later Matt Diskin – whose 200th appearance for Rhinos was ended prematurely by an elbow injury – and Burrow worked play to McGuire.

He slipped a pass to Jones-Buchanan, ran around to receive the return and then splashed over for a fine try.

On 26 minutes a last-tackle play saw Webb feed Burrow and his short pass was finished superbly by Jones-Buchanan to send Rhinos in at the break 18-2 ahead.

Straight after the interval Giants full-back Leroy Cudjoe failed to take Sinfield's bomb and McGuire followed up to complete his brace.

Dazzling handling on 47 minutes ended with Ryan Hall diving over at the corner from Ellis' blindside pass, then McGuire grubbered between the posts and Webb ran through to touch down.

Just before the hour Keith Senior collected McGuire's pass and swatted off Shane Elford for a terrific centre's try.

Aspinwall stemmed the tide with a try from a scrum after Kylie Leuluai dropped the restart, Thorman converting.

But Leeds had the last laugh when Hall capped a decent personal performance by crossing for his second try 15 minutes from time, after sweet handling by Burrow, Sinfield, McGuire, Leuluai and Toopi.

Rhinos looked a more balanced side with a specialist centre on the right flank.

Toopi – who like Webb had a try disallowed in the first half – played the full 80 minutes in his first match since suffering a dislocated shoulder in the Carnegie World Club Challenge win over Melbourne Storm on February 29.

He knocked on once, but ran strongly, got in some neat offloads and was solid in defence, which McClennan admitted was a major plus.

"It was good to have Toops, back, that was a positive," said the coach.
"He looked good on his feet and he's quick. The other positive was that we gave guys some game time.

"Carl Ablett's been crook, but he got a bit of time out there and the same with Ali Lauitiiti.

"They were both out there longer than they probably should have been, but we wanted to give them some game time."