Leeds twice blew a double-figure lead as Huddersfield hit back to claim a spectacular 30-24 Betfred Super League win at Headingley.

Adam Clune burst across the halfway line in the dying stages to put the seal on a dramatic win that piles the pressure on Leeds head coach Rohan Smith after the Rhinos’ fourth home loss in a row.

The hosts led 12-2 after a forgettable first half but spectacularly combusted after the break and handed the Giants the chance to build on last week’s brilliant Challenge Cup quarter-final win at Catalans Dragons.

Tries from Paul Momirovski and the returning David Fusitu’a had given the Rhinos a sizeable lead after a relatively serene first period in which Jake Connor kicked the Giants’ only points, and which offered no indication of the drama to follow.

It was a different story early in the second half as Leeds lost then duly retrieved their double-figure lead before the hour-mark.

Out of nowhere, Esan Marsters shrugged off three feeble challenges on the Leeds left to grab Huddersfield’s opener, then three minutes later, Adam Swift pummelled the same flank to set up a diving effort in the corner from Elliot Wallis to improbably haul Huddersfield level.

Only a poor night with the boot by Jake Connor – who would nail just one of his six conversions – prevented Huddersfield gaining a stranglehold and the Rhinos were quick to respond, Momirovski crossing for his second of night then Jarrod O’Connor charging through a flat-footed Giants rearguard to put them back in control.

Rhyse Martin’s fourth straight kick look Leeds 12 points clear but home hopes that they had learned their lesson were spectacularly disproved as more shocking defence allowed Swift to squirm over from dummy-half and keep his side in with a shout, eight adrift with 15 minutes remaining.

Incredibly within three minutes Huddersfield did it again as Swift was again allowed to make inroads before feeding Harvey Livett for his side’s fourth, cutting the Leeds lead to four.

Huddersfield were level in the 70th minute, Clune’s ball to the right was brilliantly touched on by Connor for Kevin Naiqama to surge over, but Connor’s problems with the boot continued as another missed kick left the game all-square at 24-24.

As Leeds collapsed, Miller was pushed almost 10 metres over his own try-line and his subsequent drop-out failed to go 10 metres, giving Connor the simplest of chances to send Huddersfield two points clear from in front of the posts.

Clune put the seal on a remarkable evening when Naiqama intercepted a pass from Cameron Smith and survived shouts for a knock-on as he juggled the ball out to his team-mate to finish the job.

Geoffrey Boycott has warned “there will be trouble” if Yorkshire sell their Headingley home to Mike Ashley, and added: “Everybody in Newcastle hates him.”

Ashley owned Newcastle United Football Club until October 2021, when the Magpies were bought by a Saudi-led consortium.

The PA news agency understands the Frasers Group, where Ashley is chief executive, is one of the parties interested in purchasing Headingley and securing naming and sponsorship rights, with Yorkshire working to refinance their debts and obtain sufficient working capital to thrive rather than merely survive.

Former Yorkshire and England batter Boycott, 82, voiced his view on the club’s future direction at a heated extraordinary general meeting at the ground on Thursday morning and urged the club’s board to be transparent with members.

“Every week I pick up a paper and I hear you telling us ‘we’re near a deal’. That’s been going on for months and months,” he said to the club’s chief executive Stephen Vaughan.

“We know nothing more except (what’s in) the newspapers about that guy at Newcastle wanting to buy it, and the club near to selling to him.

“Everybody in Newcastle hates him. I don’t know him, but that doesn’t sound good for Yorkshire cricket if you’re going to sell to him and lease back. I don’t want to be leasing back Headingley, why the hell do I?

“So tell us something, for God’s sake! If you do try to sell and lease back, I’m telling you there will be trouble.”

Vaughan responded: “There are various offers with different connotations, but what I will say, if people genuinely think people have come forward with some sort of unicorn bid to buy the stadium, to keep it as a members’ club, all these things, then they’re kidding themselves.

“We would have taken something like that in a heartbeat. If anybody thinks there was some sort of miracle answer out there, they’re kidding themselves.

“If anybody thinks we aren’t taking certain offers seriously, personalities don’t come into it. The very best thing for our creditors, our members and other stakeholders will be accepted by the board, it’s as simple as that.”

The club have done a deal to defer any repayments of the £14.9million owed to their major creditor, the Graves Trust, until 2025 which they hope will afford them the breathing space to secure the right refinancing deal and then pay that debt off.

The club are also trying to get back on an even keel following the financial and reputational costs of the racism scandal which engulfed them over the last three years.

Vaughan and chair-elect Harry Chathli both gave guarantees that whichever refinancing deal was ultimately accepted, Yorkshire remaining at Headingley in perpetuity would be a “red line”.

Asked in a separate interview with PA after the meeting whether Yorkshire remaining as a member’s club was also a red line, Vaughan said: “We’ve made it extremely clear to everybody that we’ve spoken to that we have no intention of Yorkshire becoming a non member’s club.

“Indeed, with anybody that’s approached us saying that they would like to explore that opportunity, we have gone one step further and said it’s not within our gift.

“We will have to get 50 per cent quorum to vote – which would be going some versus the numbers we’re getting at the moment – and then 75 per cent to vote in favour of Yorkshire becoming a non-member’s club. Other than the fact that would be challenging in the extreme, we have no say on that as a board.”

Chathli is set to become Yorkshire’s new permanent chair in succession to Lord Kamlesh Patel in the coming weeks, with special resolutions passed on Thursday which would allow his appointment outside of an annual general meeting.

Members voted in favour of Chathli’s appointment to the board as an independent non-executive director, and he will officially become chair once Financial Conduct Authority ratification of the appointment is received. That is expected by mid-October.

However, his election to the board was far from unanimous, with 108 of the 389 members who voted by proxy going against the motion to appoint him. A further eight of those 389 abstained.

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