Your Giants were a confident group before you went and won at Warrington last Friday. Has the squad’s confidence noticeably grown since then?
To be honest, nothing’s changed in that regard.
The challenge we set ourselves is that we expect to win every game we play anyway.
We always expect to compete and win, which is exactly what we did at Warrington the other night.
The atmosphere, post-game in the changing room was good, and quite rightly so.
But since the events of last Friday have all been put to bed, and this week it’s been a case of ‘what’s next, what’s the next job?’
Although the main focus is tomorrow’s home clash against Salford, is your team selection affected by the fact you travel to Hull KR just a few days later?
Not at all.
It’s probably a fair chance that if everyone had been fit – Leroy Cudjoe rolled an ankle and Anthony Mullally picked up a head knock and won’t play on Good Friday but should be available for Monday – there wouldn’t have been any changes from last week.
The aim against Salford is to play what we feel is our strongest available team.
It’s only after this game that we’ll start to give any consideration to Hull KR on Monday.
There are a lot of people out there who believe playing two games in four days over Easter is too much. Do you go along with that?
Have they just thrown this schedule at us today?
No, they haven’t. This Easter programme has been here forever and a day.
It is what it is, and we’ve just got to get on with it . Complaining about this schedule just hands players a ready-made excuse.
We’re confident in our group and our squad that we can handle what’s going to be thrown at us.
And at this stage there’s certainly no point worrying about having to play a second game on Monday, because you can guarantee that means Friday will get you.
That’s the last thing anyone wants.
But we’ve obviously put things in place in regards to making sure we give ourselves the best chance to recover after Salford, because recovery is key.
We’ve looked at making sure the players’ health and nutrition is geared up to aiding that recovery, while a special rap has to go to Muscle King Nutrition for getting us a big order through so we’ve got all the necessary supplements the players require.
You were full of praise straight after the Warrington game for the backing of the fans and the fact they were singing throughout. How big a role did they play in the win?
It’s massive., and we can’t them enough for the way they got behind us.
Away from home, our fans are very, very good.
They all group together and always make sure they make their presence felt.
They call themselves the ‘Cowbell Army’, because there’s someone in the stand with a bell, and that complements the trumpets and the band.
Apart from that one spell in the second when Warrington got closer to us with their two tries, all you could hear was our brilliant fans, and it does play a part during games.
And that’s the sort of atmosphere we’d love to create at the John Smith’s Stadium, although we obviously have to give them something to sing about in the first place.
It’s clear when you go to places like Leeds and experience the vocal South Stand how big a difference it can make to winning or losing a game.
For us to receive similar back here would be absolutely fantastic.
