The Huddersfield Giants head coach answers the questions put by Examiner RL Writer CHRIS ROBERTS
you’ve obviously been boosted this week by the arrival of Gene Ormsby on loan from Warrington. With the tough spell you’re going through, how important is it to bring in a fresh face?
Bringing in a new player is always a move to help lift the spirits, particularly when they are a player of the quality of Gene Ormsby.
But it’s not just his presence that can prove beneficial, it’s the extra options he helps bring us.
Clearly, he’s a very good rugby league player, and a man, and his a natural tryscorer.
However, his arrival has also
enabled us to switch a few things around and, hopefully, make us a far more competitive side.
We’re now able to look at putting Gene on the wing, move Aaron
Murphy to centre and put Joe Wardle in the pack. Those are good options.
WITH Kyle Wood still missing with a groin problem, does this mean Jake Connor continuing in the halves and Ryan Brierley at full-back?
Possibly.
First of all, in regards to Woody, he was touch and go with his injury this week, but with the seven-day turn-around from the Hull game to the Warrington home fixture we’ve opted to hold him back and make sure he’s 100% for then.
And in relation to Ryan, there is a chance we could keep him at full-back rather than switch him back to his more accustomed half-back role.
I do think he’s improved in the two games he’s played at full-back for us in the past week.
And we’re all looking forward to finally being able to spend some
quality time on the training field with him to help him in his progress.
You’ve got to feel for Ryan, to be honest.
He’s only been with us a couple of weeks and, due to arriving just ahead of the busy Easter programme, he’s already played three games in two different positions
. That’s a really tough introduction in anyone’s book.
But he’s already shown in patches what a tal;talented player he is, and we’re excited to see how he develops once he becomes fully settled into our structures.
TALKING of being thrown into the deep end. How do you think Mikey Wood handled his last-minute
Super League debut call?
It was tough for him, but he did
handle it all very well.
He only found out he was playing at Castleford on the morning of the game and, unfortunately, due to the nature of the game, he only got in for the last few minutes.
He did as well as anyone could have expected given the circumstances.
But what Mikey has to do now, whether it’s on dual-reg at Oldham or up at Newcastle, is to build on the
opportunity he has just been given and continue to develop as a very
talented young forward.
It’s always good to give a young player the chance to experience Super League for the first time, and the fact he’s another Huddersfield-born
player is an added bonus.
Obviously, he did get this opportunity because of the late withdrawals of Josh Johnson and Kruise Leeming.
Josh had to pull out the day before the game, while Kruise went on gameday.
And, in the case of Kruise, that did impact considerably on Ryan
Hinchcliffe, because we’d also lost our other hooker in Woody with his groin problem.
That meant Hinchy was our only recognised No9, but I knew he’d take that in his stride.
Hinchy’s a model professional and is prepared to do whatever is required for the good of the team. This was a case in point.
As soon as I told him he’d probably have to play the full 80 minutes he fully accepted that fact.
And because he’s such a tough human being, everyone in the squad knew he’d handle it, which is exactly what he did.
THAT game at Castleford was
another where you got yourselves in a position to win the game and then lost it late on. Could this in any way be down to a lack of fitness?
Fitness isn’t the major issue here.
The major issue is our lack of respect for possession, which is sapping us of energy.
Game after game, we’re coming up with errors, quite often early in sets, and that’s putting extra pressure on our defence. Defending does rob you of a lot of energy.
And the Castleford game was a case in point.
At one stage, we failed to finish seven sets on the trot because of the errors we were making. That added to the pressure we found ourselves under.
So the key is obviously to make sure this isn’t repeated in the future.
The way to do that is to batten down the hatches, keep things simple and make sure you do your job.
If everyone does that, then we know we can win.
