Nathan Brown column: Danny Brough, Leeds Rhinos and Harlequins
The Huddersfield Giants head coach Nathan Brown answers the questions put to him by Examiner chief Rugby League writer Chris Roberts.
So what’s the latest news on Danny Brough and, if there isn’t any, how disruptive has been all the talk over his potential arrival?
Right now, there’s absolutely nothing to say.
Our priority is planning for Saturday’s trip to Harlequins, and that doesn’t involve Danny Brough.
I think everyone knows I’ve always thought he’s not a bad player and has a great kicking game.
We’re obviously all well aware of everything that’s been said and written about the situation, but I don’t believe it’s causing us any problems and is a major disruption.
That’s because the one thing the players get from me is honesty, and they all know the full story. If I told them lies, that’s when it can become a problem.
Broughy’s obviously a half-back and all our players in that position have been kept fully informed and know they play an important part in us going forward.
They’ve known for some time he’s a player I thought could help our squad.
Away from all this speculation, which win gave you the most satisfaction, thrashing Wakefield 52-0 at Belle Vue or edging out champions Leeds Rhinos 26-20 at the Galpharm?
To beat any team makes you happy, and we certainly felt like that after both these wins.
Against Wakefield we knew we were up against some good opposition.
When you look at the Super League table, Wakefield only have two losses to their name, the defeat by just one try and a goal at St Helens and the heavy loss to us.
As a result, we’re both on eight points on the League ladder, one win behind the leaders, which shows Wakefield are a good team and one we were pleased to beat.
Then there’s the victory over Leeds, who have won Super League for the past three years.
It was our first League win for us over them in seven years, and the first time I’d tasted victory over them.
And the most pleasing aspect of that was the fact we were able to lift our intensity and find another gear after half-time.
I thought that towards the end of the first half they were physically better than us. Their bigger blokes were getting on top, with all their tries coming through their forwards coming through the line and offloading to the backs to finish off.
But in the second half the players responded superbly, physically, and we finished the second half strongly.
Do you think a win over Leeds, a side you failed to beat last season, means the Giants should now be taken even more seriously as a Super League force?
The first thing I would say about that is that we are definitely improving on last year. The fact we didn’t beat them last year proves that.
But the key now is to build on this, keep improving and start to become even more consistent. That’s our next challenge.
There’s no denying, however, that a win over Leeds is a real sign of the progress we’re making.
Which players, in particular, stood out for you on the day?
First of all, I thought there was an improvement throughout the whole group on Sunday, and that was really good to see.
As I said, we needed to find a response at half-time to what was going on just before the break and, collectively, we did just that.
That was when Scott Grix came up good for us in a key position, while I also thought David Faiumu’s attack in the second half was quite dangerous. These two were causing the Leeds defence a number of problems.
Luke Robinson also seemed to be proving a threat, so why was he taken off?
Robbo obviously started at scrum half, but when Grixy came on he went to hooker.
That meant he was playing a fair bit of dummy half and coming up against their bigger blokes, which can take its toll physically.
But there’s no doubt he’s doing a great job for us and we’re really happy with how he’s going.
Losing Michael Lawrence for at least a month with an ankle injury is bad news, but that must have been compensated somewhat by the way Stephen Wild (your other starting centre) played in his first game of the season following knee surgery.
The news on Bruno was obviously disappointing, and it has followed what has become a very frustrating pattern on the injury front.
We’ve now played six games this season and in five of them we’ve lost players to injuries that has kept them out for more than a couple of weeks.
But going back to Bruno and the way he’s been playing, there’s no question it’s unfortunate for him and unfortunate for the club.
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