Oldham boss Scott Naylor doesn’t expect to see senior Huddersfield Giants Michael Lawrence, Kyle Wood and Scott Grix in action for his side again.
All three Huddersfield players made their presence felt during dual registration club Oldham’s 11-10 trial defeat at top Championship club Leigh Centurions.
It was their first competitive run-outs since they underwent major wrist, knee and shoulder surgery respectively.
Young Giants Ollie Roberts and Nathan Mason also featured in the starting line-up that day and made a positive impression.
But while it would be no great surprise if the two youngsters turned out for Oldham in their Championship I campaign on a regular basis, Naylor knows the prospect of Lawrence, Wood and Grix featuring again is a very unlikely prospect.
“I had a conversation with Paul Anderson and he asked if I could fit the three senior players in,” said Naylor, who was a teammate of the Giants coach at Bradford Bulls around 15 years ago.
“Obviously I said ‘yes’. It would be nice if they played for us every week, but that’s not going to happen.
“This was, maybe, a one-off. Paul now knows they can get through games, because this was their first hit-outs after coming out of rehab.
“It was good to have them round for a couple of days to see what they were about and feed off them. In that respect it was a win for everybody.
“To be honest, when our season gets started, the players from Huddersfield could be different every week.”
Grix started the game at full-back, with Wood at scrum half, Lawrence making a tryscoring appearance at loose-forward, Mason at prop and Roberts in the second row.
And Wood capped his day by marking his first game since suffering a serious knee injury in the home Super League victory over Catalan Dragons last August by scooping Oldham’s man-of-the-match award.
