Powerhouse Ta’ai ruled out for SIX weeks

“It’s nice to have a quarter-final at home, with a semi-final place up for grabs, and we have a lot of reasons to play well.

“We have trained well, prepared properly and I would expect the guys to put in a pretty good performance. “There are no excuses. “We have a squad who are able to perform well over the next couple of months and, if we keep at it the way we have been doing, I think we will see some pretty good footy out of this team from now until the end of the year.”

Woolford is keen to underline that fact in the Cup – where he accepts Catalans are a test with quality players in their squad – but ultimately he wants improvement to show in the Super League standings.

“First and foremost we want to be in that top eight – we don’t want to have to play in the Super 8s at the end of the season,” he said.

“We want to stay where we are, climb up a bit and then have those games after the split in the competition to see what is possible.

“First and foremost, we have to get our own back yard in order, train well, play well and if we do that, I am pretty confident we will get some wins along the way.” UKUMA Ta’ai has been ruled out for at least six weeks with Huddersfield Giants.

It’s miserable news for the 31-year-old forward and also for new head coach Simon Woolford ahead of the Ladbrokes Challenge Cup quarter-final against Catalans Dragons.

Tongan powerhouse Ta’ai was injured in the 24-16 win at Salford and Woolford revealed it’s not going to be a quick turnaround.

“He has done quite a severe medial ligament (left knee) and the best case scenario is six weeks,” said Woolford, who is expecting captain Leroy Cudjoe to play his first match in nine months against the French.

“It’s not what we wanted because we are now getting players back and Ukuma was doing a really good job for us. Unfortunately he is going to be out of the game and missing for a little bit of time.

“But we have got Leroy back this week and Dale Ferguson is not too far away, so we’ve got a little bit of depth in the forwards to be able to cover for Ukuma.

“It’s disappointing he is missing, but I am sure he will do everything correctly to get back as quickly as possible.”

On Cudjoe, Woolford added: “It’s so far so good, he has got through the sessions this week, he is named to play and we are expecting him to play.

“We are not expecting a lot from him because he has had a long injury lay-off, but we want Leroy to get some game time and I would expect to see him improve week by week.

“We won’t be relying on Leroy (against Catalans), we just want him to get a feel for the game, have a run and get through feeling good.

“He can then take confidence from that and be ready to go again next week.”

The Giants return to Super League action against Leeds Rhinos at Headingley on Friday, June 8.