Adam’s on a different level, says Giants’ coach
HUDDERSFIELD Giants head coach Ian Watson believes Adam Swift is on a ‘different level’ following his four tries against Hull FC.
The former Black and Whites winger haunted his old club in his first appearance against them since leaving at the end of last season.
Watson, meanwhile, was delighted with Swift’s performance, even suggesting that his Giants side, who won the Challenge Cup tie 50-6, wouldn’t have scored two of his efforts last year, such has been the impact on the team so far.
Swift, whose first effort was the 150th try of his career, signed a three-year deal with the Giants for the 2024 season, commuting from his hometown of St Helens. He’s wasted no time settling in, scoring eight tries in six games, following on from an outstanding season at Hull last year.
Speaking to the Mail after the game, Watson said: “Two of Swifty’s tries – we don’t score this year without him. He’s just on a different level in terms of getting that space. There was minute space.
“He nearly got Jayden (Okunbor) down the touchline as well. Jayden was a winger in the NRL originally when he first started. There are certain things Swifty can do when he’s put in positions and he can score out of nothing. Like I said, last year, we don’t score them tries and we probably don’t get in front on the score-line, which helped us settle.
“He is just awesome. He’s a little bit like Ash (Golding). He’s probably not as energetic as Ash, but he’s still pretty similar. He’s a cheeky fella as well, so he’s a good character to have in and around the group. He boosts confidence for the guys around him, as you know he’s going to clean stuff up.”
Huddersfield were clinical against Hull, who succumbed to a heavy defeat for the second successive week, with Watson delighted with the manner of the victory, especially defensively.
“I thought it was a really good team performance,” he explained. “I don’t think we’ve been far off in most of the games we’ve played, to be fair.
“We’re a new team that are finding our feet with some of the players we’ve brought in. We worked really hard for each other, and we played to our strengths as individuals and as a team. That is reflected in the outcome of the performance, especially defensively.
“That’s probably the biggest one for us. We’ve spoken about our attitude to scramble for each other. We know Hull like to play hot. They like to offload and move you laterally. Tony’s teams do that. You can see they are in the infancy of what Tony is trying to do.
“Knowing Tony and knowing how good a coach he is and how he tries to build his teams, he tries to develop them by the way they play with the football, some bits stick, and it’s very hard to handle when it sticks. I thought they were pretty good for parts of the first half, but we managed to scramble to hold our line and work together as one team.”