Woolford: We could not handle Saints!
SIMON Woolford feels his Huddersfield Giants side gave St Helens too much of an easy ride during Friday’s 54-6 Super League defeat.
The defending champions ran in nine tries at Headingley to further dent the Claret and Gold’s play-off hopes.
Woolford was only able to field a 16-man squad due to their long injury list, but the head coach expected better from his side.
He said: “St Helens are a quality team and we just gave them too much ball.
“I thought we competed well in the first 40 minutes but we turned the ball over too much.
“They started their sets on halfway a lot in that first half and we couldn’t get into any rhythm.
“We competed hard, got a try back early in the second half but again, they got on too much of a roll and had too much footy and too much field position.
“We had a lot of young kids in our team and we couldn’t handle it.”
Because of injuries, Giants were forced into fielding a very young squad with Reiss Butterworth and Owen Trout both being handed their debuts.
Woolford has also brought in the versatile Chris McQueen from NRL’s West Tigers until the end of the season to bolster his ranks.
“We’re short on bodies and Chris wasn’t getting a game in Australia so thankfully the Tigers were very generous and let us have Chris for the rest of the year,” he said.
“He hasn’t played a lot of footy in the last two years but he’s won a Grand Final, he’s played State of Origin and he’s going to give us some experience and give us an extra body at the back end of the year.”
McQueen should be available for selection for Giants’ clash with rivals Leeds on Friday, with some more faces expected to make their return to the squad.
One of these will be the very welcome sight of club captain Aidan Sezer back in the claret and gold colours.
Woolford admitted the Aussie could have played against Saints but was rested to ensure he is ready and available for the match against the Rhinos.
“We get quite a few players back next week so we need to look at that game as the restart to our season and to kick-start our season again,” he said.
“Thankfully, we won quite a few games before the break so we’re in a decent position still, but we need to get started again next week that’s for sure. Sezer will be back. He probably could have played this week if it was a Sunday game but we weren’t going to risk it so he will be back next week.”
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