Huddersfield Giants Under 19s will be confident of bouncing straight back when they host the North East at the YMCA on Sunday.
Coach Chris Thorman’s side suffered their first Academy defeat of the season in going down 26-16 to a very strong Hull FC side at Bishop Burton College.
Two tries from Elliot Morris, one from Jordan Brown and two Isaac Farrell goals couldn’t prevent the Giants youngsters from suffering a defeat.
But Thorman knows a home fixture against a development side based around his hometown of Newcastle this weekend will do his squad a power of good.
“We’ll probably use this game to give a few more opportunities to some of the lads that haven’t played yet,” said Thorman.
“I think there’s only a couple of lads who haven’t played out of the entire squad, which is quite good considering that we’ve eight or nine first years in there.
“We’ll also look to fix a few things up after losing at Hull.
“I thought we started that game a little bit slow (the Giants trailed 20-4 at half-time) and we lacked a little bit of composure.
“I think it was not necessarily a bad thing losing, I think it was a bit of a reality check after opening the season with two really good wins and then coming up against a Hull side boasting quite a few current academy internationals and first-team squad members.
“Physically, I thought we were really up to it and if we stayed a little bit more composed in key areas at key times we probably would have got the win.
“We always talk about results not necessarily being the be all and end all. Don’t get me wrong, winning’s a great habit to get into and I don’t like losing just like everybody else at the club, but as long as we learn from it then it’s not necessarily a bad thing. It’s something that we can definitely learn from.”
There was also a weekend defeat for the Giants Academy Under 16s, who were beaten 30-18 at St Helens.
