Disappointed Huddersfield Giants boss Paul Anderson is hoping his side’s demoralising 19-0 opening-day home defeat to Hull FC can act as a timely reality check.
Despite Huddersfield being tipped as one of the strong favourites to make the new Super 8s at the end of the regular season, they were unable to get into their stride in round one and were nilled for the first time since their 47-0 play-off defeat at Warrington in 2011.
But with the Giants having been restricted to just the one warm-up fixture at Halifax because of snow disruptions – the least of any Super League XX side and two fewer than Hull – Anderson has conceded that could have hit his side hard.
“This was maybe a reality check,” said Anderson, who had senior players Scott Grix, Michael Lawrence and Kyle Wood on duty for dual-registration club Oldham in a pre-season trial clash at Leigh as they made their long-awaited returns to action following major surgery.
“Don’t forget we played one trial game against Halifax and, in hindsight, that might have gone against us.
“With all due respect to Halifax, we really needed a more physical hit-out than we got that day. We were pretty comfortable throughout that match and were never challenged, which obviously wasn’t the case against Hull. “We lacked a bit of cohesion but I thought for 60 minutes there was nothing in it, although the final scoreline may have suggested otherwise. For big parts of the game we looked all right, but offensively we were rusty and never really gave ourselves a chance.”
