A hat-trick of tries from Scott Grix inside the opening nine minutes paved the way for Huddersfield Giants to claim a storming 44-14 victory over Wakefield Trinity Wildcats at Belle Vue this evening.

Grix showed plenty of determination when the ball was offloaded to him by Brett Ferres to touch down for the first inside two minutes, before being played in by Joe Wardle for a second in quick succession.

The treble was completed after he latched onto Craig Hall's kick and ran 90m down field to cross over, with Danny Brough successful with all three follow-up kicks.

That left the hosts with an almighty mountain to climb, but they gave themselves a glimmer of hope when Dean Collis and Danny Kirmond pulled two back for their side prior to the interval.

Dan Smith thought he had completed the comeback when he went down under the posts, only for the referee to rule it out due to a forward pass in the build-up.

Another replacement in Jordan Crowther did find the chalk, though, who made the most of Paul McShane's pass to pull his side back to within four points.

However, three unanswered tries from Ferres, Brough and Leroy Cudjoe, the latter of which resulted from an intercepted pass, ensured that Huddersfield had plenty of breathing space in the closing stages, with Ukuma Ta'ai crossing over at the death to seal the points.