Disciplined and determined defence will be top of the agenda for Huddersfield Giants coach Rick Stone at St Helens tonight.
The Australian boss was very unhappy with how the Giants conceded in the 52-14 reversal at Salford Red Devils and does not want a repeat at the Totally Wicked Stadium.
While the Giants’ hopes of making the top four have now evaporated, Stone is keen to finish the season positively against Saints tonight and Leeds Rhinos next Friday.
He is without forwards Sebastine Ikahihifo and Shannon Wakeman against Justin Holbrook’s side but has recalled Tyler Dickinson and Sam Wood to the 19-man squad.
Stone said: “We’ll do a bit better than last week hopefully.
“It was really disappointing last week, considering what we’ve been doing in the past few months where we’ve averaged a lot fewer points against us.
“The opposition were good and we weren’t good enough. We want to improve on that.
“It’s disappointing when you’re working hard to gain some credibility and you let yourself down like we did last weekend.”
The coach, whose side suffered a narrow defeat to leaders Castleford before the Salford debacle, is keen to see the Giants return to the sort of form which earned them a 46-18 win at Hull FC last month.
And he says they need to show pride in their performance to reward the loyal claret and gold fans.
“I don’t want to be harping on about last week, but it’s not acceptable,” he explained.
“It’s not fair on our fans.
“I’m definitely looking for a response next week.
“It’s something that’s not acceptable and we want to make sure we can rectify it as quickly as possible.
“As far as we’re concerned we’ve got two games and we’re going to produce our best team in those games to try and play our best stuff.
“It doesn’t change too much, we’ve got a couple of big games ahead against Saints and Leeds. We just want to make sure we’re up for the contest.
“I think we’ve got an obligation to our fans and whoever supports our club to put our best team out there.
“We want to win as many games and finish as high as we can on the ladder, so we’ll select our best 17 and go from there.”
