No point beating Saints if we go on and lose to Salford, says Tupou
FIT-AGAIN hooker Kruise Leeming says Huddersfield Giants need to start delivering the results that caretaker coach Chris Thorman “deserves”.
It is four games since the assistant stepped up following Rick Stone’s sacking, but he is still awaiting a first win.
Pressure is mounting at Huddersfield with a battle in the Qualifiers looking increasingly likely.
The task does not get any easier with a trip to Super League leaders St Helens this evening.
But Leeming, 22, has belief and he said: “Chris has coached me since I was a young lad so he’s always kind of been my head coach.
“He’s helped me massively through my academy days and he’s always been around when I’ve been in the first team so it hasn’t really been a massive change for me. You can tell that he really cares about the club and you can trust him.
“I think for a player to be able to trust the coach, no matter what the game plan is, if you trust them then you can normally get the job done.
“Hopefully we can start getting the results that Chris deserves because he puts a lot of time and effort into everything that he does and we need to start getting the results for him.
“We need to show him a bit back of what he puts into us, and if we can do that then hopefully we can get a lot of wins.”
After missing three games due to injury Leeming returned in Sunday’s disappointing home loss to Salford Red Devils.
With scrum-half Danny Brough starting a three-game ban tonight after being red-carded in that game for dissent, the hooker’s creative influence will be all the more crucial.
Leeming feels tonight’s game will offer an insight into how the Giants are developing.
“It’s tough to get the confidence and the combinations when your number nine, six, seven and one are changing every week,” he said.
“And I don’t think there’s been three weeks on the bounce when we’ve had the same players in those positions.
“That’s tough, but we’re starting to learn how to play with each other and we’re getting there.
“It’s always good going against the top teams because you get to see where you are at and I’m looking forward to facing Saints.” WAKEFIELD TRINITY are aiming to “get on a roll” when they visit Salford Red Devils tonight.
Trinity ended a five-game losing run – and blew the race for the Betfred Super League leaders’ shield wide open – when they stunned table-topping St Helens 24-20 on Sunday.
Wakefield remain seventh, one place and two points above Salford, but will claw their way back into top-four contention if they can pick up another win tonight.
One of their outstanding players last week was three-quarter Bill Tupou, who scored Trinity’s fourth and final touchdown and made a try-saving intervention late in the game.
He described the win over Saints as “awesome”, but admitted all that hard work will be wasted if Trinity slip up tonight.
Tupou said: “It felt good to get the win. It’s been a while and I was happy for the boys to get the two points.
“I hope we can get on a roll now. The thing now is to make sure we are not complacent, make sure we are taking it week by week: Salford’s our main focus.”
Tupou revealed: “Chezzy (coach Chris Chester) spoke to us after (Sunday’s) game and said we need to take this to Salford and hopefully continue on from there and keep it going.
“We can take plenty of confidence because Saints are the top team and we know we can beat anyone.
“We have shown the rest of Super League we can do it.”
Chester will choose his side from the players on duty against Saints, plus winger Tom Johnstone and forward Pauli Pauli.
Johnstone was dropped last week, so Tupou switched to the left wing and Joe Arundel came into the team as his centre.
Tupou said: “The main focus for me is to give my all every week and do my job for the boys.
“I think I’m doing that so I’ve just got to keep it up. We’ve a lot of depth. That’s what we want. You have to perform every week as, if not, you might get dropped.”
Featherstone Rovers head coach John Duffy has signed a new deal until the end of 2020.