Giants must avoid ‘scrapping’ it out
OLIVER Roberts believes Huddersfield Giants are close to winning games and getting points on the board – but knows that scrappiness was in abundance in the opening two fixtures.
Simon Woolford’s men host Warrington Wolves tonight looking for their first Super League win of the season after defeats to Salford Red Devils and Catalans Dragons.
“We had some good areas and scrappy areas, we’re just patching up where we can be better,” said Irish international Roberts. “We’re not far off, it’s just the little things that we need to tweak. Once they’ll be in place, rehab from day one,” said Woolford.
“Jerry had a scan the other day and it was well ahead of where it should be so he’s just got to get through this week and if he does we will play him.”
These returns now mean Woolford has a bit of a selection headache and is faced with a tricky decision ahead of the game against Warrington.
“There will be a couple of guys who won’t get picked this week that could probably put up an argument to say that they feel a little hard done by.”
“But we had a plan to go into the season a particular way and over the next couple of weeks we should be able to put those plans back into place with the personnel coming back into the team, and that should translate into some better performances.”
If Giants are to get their first win of the everything will fall together, hopefully.”
The Giants will benefit from returning players this week, with Jermaine McGillvary, Lee Gaskell and Ukuma Ta’ai all available for selection. Roberts is confident that having the big personalities and the enforcers in the pack will have a big impact
He said: “It’s a massive bonus having Jerry back, Gasky back as well and of course Ukuma. They’re all big members of this team, they’re all enforcers so it’s amazing to have them back it’s a good boost for us.”
Warrington are the biggest test yet for Giants, being the Challenge Cup finalists and Grand Finalists.
Roberts believes that getting the season, then a great performance is needed on Friday against a Warrington side that has unsurprisingly gained plaudits from Woolford.
“They’re two from two so they’re doing a lot better than us. They’re a big physical pack and hard to handle – they’ve got Austin who pops up all over the field, he’s a danger.”
“They’ve got a pretty good side from one through to seventeen, they’ve got a lot of threat so it’s really important that we control the ball when we’ve got it and when we don’t have it we own up defensively. That’s as simple as I can put it.”
Warrington Wolves will prove a stern test at the John Smith’s stadium and despite still being winless, Woolford is not looking back at what could have been for Giants this season. basics right will be key to turning the Wolves over, and that this will be a real barometer of the Giants’ progress.
He said: “It’s a massive challenge. You’d like to think Warrington are a top four contender and we’d like to be there as well. We’ve beaten them before and we’ll beat them again, we just need to get our things right.”
With Super League tighter than ever before, the 24-year-old believes that only tweaks to the performances will lead to the squad gelling together and getting key victories needed to keep up with the teams across the table.
“It’s only early, this is our third game in so hopefully we just start building and getting things right.”