JAMAHL LOLESI believes the Giants are in the perfect position to build on last year’s achievements – as long as they learn the lessons from their Salford horror show.
The 28-year-old former New Zealand Test centre was in the Huddersfield side that suffered the shock 30-18 defeat at the struggling City Reds on April 5.
Since then, the Giants have hit back with victory over Castleford and then Sunday’s impressive 40-12 Challenge Cup fourth-round triumph over Hull KR.
But on Sunday, Lolesi and his teammates are back on the road for the first time since that Willows nightmare on Easter Monday when they face Crusaders looking to chalk up Super League win No8 at Wrexham.
And even though the popular utility player knows this year’s squad is better than last year’s, he is wary of being a part of another under-performing Giants’ side.
“It’s not often we’ve played badly since Nathan (Brown) arrived, but that Salford performance was an obvious exception,” said Lolesi.
“Unfortunately, bad days do sometimeshappen and, when they do, you have to make sure you learn the lessons so they don’t happen again. You definitely don’t want to go through things like that too often!
“And you’d like to think the lessons have been learned, because we have responded to that Salford setback with the win over Castleford and then an even better performance and win against Hull KR in the Challenge Cup.
“But this weekend we face a similar challenge to the one we faced at Salford over Easter.
“We’re back on the road again and will be favourites to win, just like we were a couple of weeks ago.
“We also know we’ll be facing a side that can cause you some problems if you let them get on top.
“So our challenge is to make sure we don’t let history repeat itself and prove beyond doubt that we’ve put what happened a few weeks ago firmly behind us.”
And Lolesi knows that if the Giants do string together another top performance they’ll be in a good position to go on and be an even stronger Super League power.
“This squad is definitely the best since I’ve been here,” he added.
“It’s certainly hats off to Browny for doing that, as well as the way he’s continuing to get the very best out of the players he has around him.
“Although we’ve got some real quality here, the key to our success is the way we play together as a team.
“And we know that if all 17 who are in the side play well, then we’ll give ourselves a shout of beating anyone.
“We’re about to come into a very big month, with the two League games against Wigan (at Magic Weekend and then a regular fixture) and the Cup game against Warrington.
“So we know we’re going to need to put in a solid display this weekend to make sure we’re in good shape for what will be a tough month.”
