The Huddersfield Giants squad could be about to pay the price for the cancellation of yesterday’s pre-season clash at Bradford Bulls.
That’s the warning from head coach Paul Anderson after a frozen Odsal pitch meant his players ended up with a day off.
But the Giants chief has made it clear they’ve been given a rest to prepare for what he now says is going to be an even challenging week of training.
“It’s obviously disappointing not to have played,” said Anderson.
“With the way we’ve put the players through it during pre-season training, I know they were looking forward to getting a game.
“But we don’t see this cancellation as the end of the world. I’m still glass half full rather than half empty.
“The key now is how we adjust things through not playing at the weekend.
“When the game was called off we chose to give the players the day off, but that means we’ll really hit them in training from first thing Monday morning.
“We had hoped to find a new date for the Bulls game, but that doesn’t seem as if it will happen now.
“Instead, we’ll be looking to play some behind-closed-doors stuff, while making sure we work the players as hard as we can.”
The Giants’ original plan was to field a bigger squad against the Bulls and then reduce that figure to around 19 for the trip to Halifax.
But Anderson knows that strategy could now change.
“We’ll have to wait and see as the week progresses,” he added.
“We’ve obviously had to look at the possibility of changing our initial way of thinking, but the disruption isn’t that great.
“Having yesterday’s game called off is hardly the end of the world.
“The players still know that if they want to be considered for a place in the squad to face Halifax they’re going to need to put in a good week’s training.”
