Leigh Leopards vs Huddersfield Giants Prediction: Jacob’s the Gagai for the Giants

Leigh Leopards bid to win back-to-back Betfred Super League games for the first time this season when Huddersfield Giants arrive at the Leopards' Den on Thursday night (20:00 BST, Sky Sports+).

The Giants saw their brief run of good form ended by a drubbing at the hands of Leeds last weekend and will fancy their chances against Adrian Lam's so-far under-performing Leopards. Here are my Leigh Leopards vs Huddersfield Giants predictions.

Leigh Leopards vs Huddersfield Giants Odds

The Leopards are the 1/3 favourites for the win on Thursday, with Huddersfield a 5/2 shot at an implied 28.6% probability. The draw is 16/1.

Team News

A huge boost for Leigh sees star full-back David Armstrong named in a squad for the first time this season. The former NRL number one suffered an ACL injury last season after a brilliant debut year in the British game. It remains to be seen whether Armstrong is fit enough to make the matchday 17 but his mere return represents a significant boost to a Leopards side in real need of a spark.

England prop Robbie Mulhern is also included after a tight calf which forced him to miss last week's win at York Knights. Two other stars remain out however. Umyla Hanley is having a wretched run with injuries, while he is joined on the sidelines once again by Tesi Niu.

Interim Huddersfield boss Liam Finn makes just one change to the Giants squad hammered at home by Leeds last week.

Winger Sam Halsall was injured on his return to the side against the Rhinos, so his place is taken by youngster Lewis Jagger. On-loan Wigan youngster Jacob Douglas is another option to replace Halsall.

Handicap 3-way: Leigh -10 @ 1/1

Leigh really needed that win at York last weekend after a difficult start to the year that culminated in a quarter-final exit from the Betfred Challenge Cup the week before at Warrington.

We felt it would be tight but Leigh would get the job done, and so it proved. Our 14-point handicap steer on York turned out to be spot on as Leigh emerged with a 12-point victory for which they had to work incredibly hard.

I feel this week will see more of the same. Huddersfield had found some real form in the immediate aftermath of Luke Robinson's departure, but that two-game winning run was brought to a thumping end as the Rhinos ran riot last week, justifying our backing to win both halves at 7/5 and seeing Jack Bird oblige in the anytime market for our followers at 6/4.

So which Giants side will turn up this week? The one outplayed by Leeds or the one who beat York and Wigan in the two weeks prior?

There feels like there could be some joy for the Giants in this one, and even though they were well beaten by Leeds, Huddersfield still put 22 points on the board.

The handicap is 10 points, which may do Huddersfield a disservice. Although, for those who watched that defeat to Leeds last week there will be agreement that there are points in this for Leigh too.

I feel the Leopards will churn out another win here but they may find it tough. With home advantage alone being a key factor for Leigh given the tremendous atmosphere they now create at the Sports Village, I am taking them on the handicap but with a small degree of trepidation.

Jacob Gagai Anytime Tryscorer @ 7/4

Armstrong proved a shrewd pick last season whenever I backed Leigh in the anytime market, and the Aussie is 1/1 to mark his return with a try. For now I am staying away until he is fully fit and back playing 80 minutes but he is definitely one to watch now he is back in the mix - explosive.

I'm actually looking at the visitors in the tryscorer market given the amount of points they are scoring in victory or defeat. Four tries in defeat to Leeds followed six tries in each of the previous two games that both yielded wins. So the attack is starting to click now they have senior stars back such as Adam Clune and Niall Evalds in the spine.

The most potent attacking weapon, however, is emerging out wide in former NRL centre Jacob Gagai. The 30-year-old ex-South Sydney Rabbitoh is really finding form with five tries in his last four games, and at 7/4 is a very tempting pick this week.

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