Nathan Brown column: We’re pleased with the way Giants are progressing

Mar 11 2010 by Chris Roberts, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

Nathan Brown

Huddersfield Giants coach Nathan Brown talks to the Examiner's RL reporter Chris Roberts.

Is the 52-0 win at Wakefield the best since you’ve been here?

It was a very pleasing one, there’s no doubt about it.

Wakefield had started the season really well, with just one loss before they played us.

But even though we’d lost two games we still went there feeling confident, because those defeats had been against teams who had been playing well and we could count ourselves unlucky not to have won.

Having said all that, we were still very pleased with the way things came together on the night.

We’re evolving as a side and we’re learning how to use our new personnel better.

But while the boys should take a great deal of satisfaction over the way they played, I do also feel for (Wakefield coach) John Kear as well.

I’ve been on the wrong end of a 50-0 scoreline in the past, and it’s not a nice place to be at all, so I know how hard it will have hit Keary.

You can also watch an interview with Nathan Brown here.

Improving your attack was something you’ve been working hard to improve. You must be pleased with the way that part of your game is progressing.

We’re slowly getting there.

With the signings rival clubs have made this year, it was obvious everyone has been looking to improve, and the early signs this season suggest that’s definitely the case.

We knew, therefore, that we couldn’t afford to stand still, and steps needed to be taken to make sure we didn’t start to fall behind. For us, that meant having to improve our execution.

There were signs earlier in the season that our attack was coming together, and some of the tries we scored at Wakefield clearly underlined that fact.

It’s starting to look good, but it’s still far from perfect.

You must have also been delighted to have ‘nilled’ two teams in your last three games.

It’s great, no doubt about it.

Overall, our defence is good and that’s because the boys work so hard for each other.

In the Wakefield game we did make some defensive errors, but the way the boys covered for each other was tremendous, with the effort by Jammer (Jamahl Lolesi) just before half-time a prime example.

The way he came across the field to deny Danny Brough when he raced away after picking up the loose ball on halfway showed exactly how much pride we take in protecting our tryline.

When I first arrived here we wanted to reach the position where teams had to earn the right to score tries against us, and I feel that with the magnificent help of Baloo (assistant coach Paul Anderson) and Bumper (head conditioner Mark Andrews) we’re reaching that point.

But even though we felt last year we were defending well and we’ve put in some tremendous defensive efforts this season, there are still areas we need to improve.

Given Paul Whatuira’s well-documented health problems towards the end of last year, how pleased were you with his performance?

Fatz is going really well and, as a group, I think we’re all delighted about that.

But I’m sure he’ll be the first to acknowledge he’s got some good players working around him in Kevin Brown, Lee Gilmour and David Hodgson. There’s some genuine pace there.

Having said that, I believe we’re already utilising Fatz far more than we did last year, and that’s also helping to bring the best out of him.

He’s clearly learned how to deal with the well-documented problems he faced late last year, which is something else that’s helping his game, and we all appreciate that for us to do well we need Paul Whatuira to be playing well. That’s what he’s doing now.

And do you feel that with Brett Hodgson not playing against Wakefield, people will now stop asking whether the Giants can win without their captain and the current Super League Man of Steel?

People will always have their say, and it’s obvious that when you lose one of your key players through injury it’s going to be a talking point.

But the big thing for us now is trying to win a really big game without Brett, and that’s one of challenges we face against Leeds Rhinos this weekend.

Leeds have obviously won Super League for the last three season, so it’s going to be a step up for us and we know we’re going to be even better than we were against Wakefield.

Hopefully, that’s something we can achieve. We’ll soon find out.

We know where we’re at as a squad and how important Brett is to us, but we also know we can win without him, as the Wakefield game has shown, and that should give us a great deal of confidence going into Sunday’s game.