A DISASTROUS opening quarter set the tone as Widnes went down 40-0 at Huddersfield Giants.

The home side established an 18-0 lead at more than a point a minute to put the Vikings on the back foot and they never looked like recovering.

Widnes went into the game without the injured Rhys Hanbury and suspended Rangi Chase while half-back Tom Gilmore was also a late withdrawal.

Aaron Heremaia joined Joe Mellor in the halves with Jordan Johnstone coming in on the bench to dovetail at dummy-half with Lloyd White.

Props Greg Burke and Manase Manuokafoa were also back in harness to replace Eamon O'Carroll and Alex Gerrard.

Corey Thompson moved into fullback to accommodate the loss of Danny Craven through injury with Ryan Ince starting on the right wing.

Huddersfield hit the front on six minutes when a set move near the line saw prop Shannon Wakeman plough over with Martin Ridyard adding the extras.

The Giants clearly had a lot more cutting edge at their disposal and the lead was quickly doubled when quick hands got winger Jermaine McGillvary over.

There was only 16 minutes on the clock when Ryan Hinchliffe found an alarmingly large hole in the Widnes defence to coast over from ten metres out for a third converted score.

Widnes created a couple of chances on the left but Stefan Marsh couldn't quite pull in a pair of difficult passes from Corey Thompson and Charly Runciman respectively.

And just when it looked like Widnes had found their feet, Adam O'Brien sneaked over from dummy-half to give Huddersfield a 24-0 half-time lead.

The Vikings played a bit of hot-potato rugby early in the second half but they couldn't find a killer pass.

On 50 minutes the Giants showed them how it's done with a smart scrum move engineering a walk-in for left winger Darnell McIntosh.

The game meandered along for 20 minutes until the home side found their rhythm again and late tries to McGillvary and Ukuma Ta'ai made the final score 40-0.

Huddersfield: Rankin; McGillvary, Cudjoe, Gaskell, McIntosh; Brough, Ridyard; Rapira, Leeming, Wakeman, Roberts, Ta'ai, Hinchcliffe. Subs: O'Brien, Mellor, Clough, Dickinson.

Widnes: Thompson; Ince, Bridge, Runciman, Marsh; Mellor, Heremaia; Dudson, White, Buchanan, Houston, Whitley, Cahill. Subs: Johnstone, Burke, Heremaia, O'Carroll, Gerrard.

Half-Time: 24-0 Referee: Mr T Grant