Huddersfield Giants will have the honour of playing in the opening Super League fixture in 2014.
But the price the minor 2013 champions pay for travelling to Super League Grand Final winners Wigan for the competition’s opener on Friday, February 7, is the fact their pre-season preparation has been cut short by a week.
With the Warriors heading to Australia to face NRL champions Sydney Roosters in the World Club Challenge the following week, the Giants and Wigan will do battle in the one-off fixture the week before the official start of the season.
Click on the link below to open up the Giants fixture list in a new window
Giants coach Paul Anderson admits that’s far from ideal, particularly with several key members of his squad not returning for pre-season work until after Christmas because of their World Cup commitments.
But the Huddersfield chief is still relishing what will be a cracking start to the campaign.
“It would have been nice to have been given a bit more notice,” said Anderson, whose players returned to pre-season training a week ago.
“We’re a very pro-active club and we’d already put all our pre-season plans in place way before now, including the warm-up games we want to play.
“But having now seen we’ll be starting a week earlier will have an effect on some of things we’ll be doing – although it’s hardly the end of the world and it’s just a case of getting on with it.
“Wigan are obviously in exactly the same boat as us, so we can’t complain on that score.
“And playing them first up could, in fact, work to our advantage, because it’s possible they could have one eye on getting on the plane to Australia and preparing for the World Club Challenge.”
Fixture list for 2014 holds no fear for Huddersfield Giants coach Paul Anderson - click to read
