Huddersfield Giants coach Paul Anderson believes his side’s enforced weekend break may have come at just the right time.

Huddersfield’s controversial 17-16 home Challenge Cup defeat to St Helens 17 days ago means they won’t be involved in this week’s fifth-round action.

Anderson has confirmed he intends to give his players time off over the weekend before embarking on a full week’s preparation for the home Super League encounter against high-flying Castleford Tigers.

And after having just experienced the most punishing of schedules, the Giants chief knows his players deserve the opportunity to recharge their batteries.

“We’ve effectively just come out of a double Easter,” said Anderson.

“We had a Sunday to Thursday turnaround (from Saints to Hull) followed by a Friday to Monday turnaround (from Salford to Wakefield), which the powers-that-be deemed to be acceptable.

“But we’ve got over that period now and it’s up to us to make sure we use our time wisely.

“Obviously, we would have preferred to have still been involved in the Challenge Cup.

Unfortunately, we’re not, so we can now dust ourselves down, and get everyone freshened up so we can get a good seven-day run-in to the Castleford game, when there can be no excuses for not playing well that day.”

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