• Huddersfield Giants 22-4 Hull
Huddersfield added credibility to their position at the summit of the Super League table and doubled their lead to two points by grinding down a Hull team who showed that their equally unexpected presence in the top five is no fluke either.
"A tough, ugly win," said Nathan Brown, the Giants' Australian coach who is to join St Helens next season.
It took them 62 minutes to score the first try of an attritional game in steady drizzle as Hull defended with a resilience that was all the more admirable considering the effort and emotion expended in their derby win against Hull KR on Good Friday.
Lee Radford, the club's assistant coach who had come out of retirement for that game because of a glut of injuries in the pack, again performed manfully. But Hull finally cracked when Eorl Crabtree, the pony-tailed enforcer who is the homegrown personification of Huddersfield's nickname, made one powerful charge too many at their line and crashed over from close range.
Danny Brough's simple conversion extended the lead to 8-4 and, after Luke Robinson darted over from acting half six minutes later, Brough capped an inventive and controlled individual performance with a quicksilver break from deep inside his own half to send Joe Wardle over on the left.
"We were out on our feet at the end there," said Peter Gentle, the Hull coach. He is the latest in a long line of Australians to express bemusement about British rugby league's Easter bonanza which has required players to turn out twice in quick succession for more than a century.
"I don't mind it, not a bit," responded Brough, the tattooed schemer from Dewsbury who must be the favourite to be England's starting scrum-half for the mid-season fixtures against the Exiles, after missing last autumn's Four Nations series through injury.
"We get paid to play and the clubs get a lot of people through the gate over Easter, so you've just got to get on with it." The 9,950 attendance was Huddersfield's highest of the season and an aggregate of 65,347 from the seven Easter Monday fixtures took the total for the weekend well beyond 150,000 at a five-figure average per match.
Wigan climbed to second with a 36-6 win against Wakefield and Bradford also completed an Easter double with a 38-4 romp at Widnes to consolidate their position in the top eight. But the most eyecatching result of the day came in Perpignan, where Catalan Dragons demolished Warrington 44-16 in front of a capacity 11,500 crowd at the Stade Gilbert Brutus. The Dragons are now level with Wigan and, like Huddersfield, demanding respect as genuine contenders.
Huddersfield Giants Eden; McGillvary, Cudjoe, Wardle, Murphy; Brough, Grix; Mason, Lee, Fa'alogo, Lawrence, Molloy, Brown (capt). Interchange Crabtree, Robinson, Patrick, Chan.
Tries Crabtree, Robinson, Wardle. Goals Brough 5.
Hull FC McKinnon; Sharp, Turner, Yeaman, Briscoe; Ellis, Seymour; Radford, Houghton, Lynch (capt), Manu, Tickle, Whiting. Interchange Aspinwall, Kent, Bowden, Pitts.
Goals Tickle 2.
Referee J Child (Leeds) Attendance 9,950.