Huddersfield Giants vs Leigh Leopards Prediction: Visitors to capitalise on ‘good opportunity’

Licking their wounds after a 46-4 humbling by St Helens, Huddersfield face a Leigh side that have lost three on the bounce at the John Smith's Stadium on Thursday night (20:00, live on Sky Sports +).

Read on for our rugby league guru George Riley's Huddersfield Giants vs Leigh Leopards predictions, complete with the latest match odds and essential team news.

Huddersfield Giants vs Leigh Leopards Odds

Leigh are heavy favourites at 3/10 to come away from the John Smith's Stadium with two points on Thursday night, while Huddersfield are 13/5 to upset the odds. It's 20/1 at Betfred that it ends a draw.

Josh Charnley leads the tryscorer markets, at 8/1 to score the opener and 4/5 to cross the whitewash at anytime.

Team News

Huddersfield dipped into the transfer market to bring in a big name from Down Under and forward Tristan Powell is in line to make his Giants debut on Thursday night.

Oliver Wilson has also been named despite struggling with a back issue. Jack Murchie is the only man to drop out of the squad from last weekend's mauling by Saints as he makes way for new boy Powell.

Niall Evalds remains out long term, as do Liam Sutcliffe, Fenton Rogers, Matty English and Aidan McGowan.

Leigh are without Gareth O'Brien under head injury protocols so Ben McNamara will again deputise, but the big boost is the return of star full-back David Armstrong and Frankie Halton is closer to making his return as he is again named in the initial squad.

Josh Charnley is again included after only being named on the bench last week.

Leigh -10 @ 21/20

On the face of it this should be a relatively comfortable away win but Leigh have been off-colour through May and come into this game off the back of three straight defeats.

The Giants on the other hand continue to show glimpses of their quality but remain bogged down in some pretty awful results. Their one win - against Hull FC at Magic Weekend - already feels like a lifetime ago after a couple more lacklustre defeats and only sorry Salford sit below the Giants in the table.

Speaking of form, we come into this game in some pretty hot tipping form too, with every single selection landing last weekend. So is this the fixture where that run goes wrong? Let's hope not.

I'm reasonably confident that Leigh will overcome a stubborn Giants effort to get the job done and the return of Armstrong could be key. Leigh have looked to lack a little leadership in their stumble through May, and having more star men back in the team will help.

The Leopards are too good a side to go on too long a bad run and this feels like a good opportunity to get back on track. I don't expect the home side to roll over however and am thus going to stick close to the handicap at 10 points.

Edwin Ipape anytime tryscorer @ 7/4

Hooker Edwin Ipape has long been one of our trusty go-to anytime tryscorer selections and I like this fixture for the livewire number nine.

The Papua New Guinea star has scored three tries in the four fixtures through May and has been close to more points too.

Ipape is a strong runner from dummy half and a brilliant support player too. Close to the line he is almost impossible to stop and I like 7/4 about Ipape adding another try to his tally here.

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