Huddersfield Giants coach Paul Anderson's column: I couldn’t care less who plays for England!

SO MUCH of the talk this week has been the omission of Danny Brough from the England squad. What’s your thoughts on the subject?

My thoughts are that it has absolutely nothing to do with me.

It’s not up to me who plays or who doesn’t play for England, that’s down to Steve McNamara. It’s his job to pick the England squad, not mine.

My job is to do the best I can for Huddersfield Giants and, at the moment, I couldn’t care less about England. All I’m bothered about right now is making sure we’re in the best possible shape we can be for tomorrow night’s game at Hull KR.

To be honest, I’ve got enough to think about with the short turn-around this week without worrying about who’s in the England squad.

I’m just pleased Danny Brough is playing for us, that’s the bottom line.

He clearly has a massive influence on what we do, which was once again in evidence in our win over St Helens the other night.

Everyone talks about his kicking game and that sort of thing. But if you look at his sleight of hand and the combinations he’s got going with the players around him, there’s so much more to his game.

One of the things I said when he was announced as our captain was that he would be someone who led by actions rather than words. That’s exactly what he’s done.

But it also means that when he does have something to say, everyone is prepared to listen.

You mentioned about the quick turn-around. Are your plans going according to plan for tomorrow night’s trip?

They’re going as well as they could be.

As I said before the St Helens game, we don’t really see the trip to Rovers soon after as a major issue.

From day one, we knew this was going to be the case, so we’ve been able to put plans in places to make sure we’re as prepared as well as we possibly can be.

But that still doesn’t mean I don’t think it’s ridiculous.

I had assumed the reason Hull KR were playing this game on the Friday night was that the powers-that-be didn’t want any Super League fixtures less than a week before the England-Exiles Origin game next Friday night.

But I’ve now learned that’s not the case, with matches taking place on the Saturday, Sunday and Monday.

We’re not going to moan and winge too much about it, though. That won’t change anything.

We’ve just got to go there, get the job done, train for a couple more days and then take a short break before preparing for the home game against Leeds on June 23.

Anthony Mullally is going to be available for selection after he was cleared of the challenge which left St Helens winger Ade Gardner concussed. Did that decision come as a big relief?

Not really. I was always confident that would be the case, which is what I said in the post-match press conference.

I could understand why a penalty was awarded against Anthony, because he made contact with the head.

But replays clearly showed Ade fell and stumbled into the tackle and accidentally hit Anthony’s shoulders, and that there was absolutely nothing that could have been done to prevent the incident.

Having said that, questions have to be raised over the newly-laid pitch, which was the reason Ade slipped going into the tackle.

After his successful loan spell at Hull KR earlier in the year, how much is in-form Dale Ferguson looking forward to going back tomorrow night?

I’m sure he’s looking forward to it as much as the rest of us.

But certainly his loan spell at Craven Park did him a power of good, because he’s not really looked back since he returned here.

At the start of the year Dale struggled to get into our side, hence the reason for allowing him to go to Hull KR on loan.

After coming back from that month away, I don’t think he’s missed a game.

In that time he’s shown a lot of his true potential and he’s been a part of a lot of the good work we’ve been doing.

Ukuma Ta’ai is also start to show his full potential, with several big hits against Saints really catching the eye. Are you pleased with the way he’s continuing to settle to the cause?

He did ok the other night.

There are some parts of his game that are going well, while there are others that still need to be improved.

But I think you could say that about the team in general, to be honest.

There is, however, no doubt at all that Ukuma is making a more valuable contribution with every game he plays, and we’re looking for that to continue at Hull KR tomorrow night.

The key in this game is for an improvement across the board, whether that’s from Ukuma as a player or the Giants as a team.