Huddersfield Giants head coach Rick Stone has made three changes for Friday night’s opening Super 8s clash at home to Wakefield Trinity.
Centre Jordan Turner, fit again after a hamstring strain, has been named in Stone's 19-man squad, and also included are Nathan Mason and former Wakefield forward Daniel Smith.
The return of Turner to the centres will allow Lee Gaskell to take up a half back role, and it gives Stone a chance to rest on-loan Martyn Ridyard, who has been dogged by a shoulder injury over recent weeks.
Also rested are second row pairing Dale Ferguson, who has also been struggling with a shoulder niggle, and Ireland inter Ollie Roberts.
In the most recent clash the Giants were beaten 28-26 at Trinity, but Huddersfield won the home encounter 24-16 back in February .
“It is a big game for both teams,” said Stone.
“And the fact that it is a derby adds that little bit of extra spice to it.
“We have won one each this year and there really hasn’t been too much between the two sides in the games.”
And Stone feels his side have the impetus to push on from their strong finish to the regular season and make an impact in the Super 8s.
“We have got a bit of momentum going into the Super 8s, but we need to look to attack teams,” added Stone, whose side completed the regular Super League season with a 14-10 defeat at Hull FC.
“We definitely put up a good performance in our last outing against Hull, but we needed to execute better when we had the ball.
“The defence was good, but we needed to be better in attack and we knew that was the difference between winning and losing on the day.
“So we have spent some time over the past two weeks trying to fine tune our execution.
“It really is all about finishing our last plays.”
Trinity’s head coach Chris Chester has named his 19-man squad for the trip to the Giants and two changes have been made to the squad that lost 41-16 at home to St Helens in the final round of the regular season.
Jacob Miller, who has been out with a broken leg, and Anthony England return and they will replace Craig Huby and David Fifita.
Huddersfield Giants 19-man squad: Leroy Cudjoe, Lee Gaskell, Danny Brough, Sam Rapira, Ryan Hinchcliffe, Darnell McIntosh, Alex Mellor, Adam O’Brien, Jordan Turner, Jordan Rankin
Wakefield Trinity: Chris Annakin, Tinirau Arona, Joe Arundel, Matty Ashurst, Mason Caton-Brown, Anthony England, Liam Finn, Scott Grix, Dean Hadley, James Hasson, Keegan Hirst, Ben Jones-Bishop, Danny Kirmond, Reece Lyne, Jacob Miller, Bill Tupou, Adam Walker, Sam Williams, Kyle Wood
