HUDDERSFIELD Giants are to be congratulated on the fantastic turnaround in the game at Wakefield.

Let’s hope this is the start of another purple patch similar to mid-season, which gave great enjoyment to the supporters and the players themselves.

There is little doubt the Giants have the best team for many years and arguably on a par with Wigan as the fourth best team in the Super League.

This makes it very difficult to analyse the reasons for the downswing over the last weeks.

Paradoxically, this has been the result of astute Super League coaches, who have devised a strategy to negate the Giants gameplan, which was based on rapid forward momentum and astute kicking by Brad Drew in the opponents 25.

The Salford game changed everything, which I stated at the time.

Robinson was given the freedom of the park and kicked the Giants to death and this has been repeated by, for example, Horne, Deacon and last week by Briers.

Plus taking advantage of the perceived weaknesses of players out of position.

The result of this is that the Giants have constantly been on the defensive and the percentages of possession and attacking positional play has been the worst in Super League.

The problem was compounded by pathetic kicking and predictable forward play, who are targeted by the opposition.

One would have thought that with the St Helens connection of the coaching staff, the forwards were trained to drive low and fast, such as practised by Jackson and Skandalis.

The physicality of the Super League is such that all teams in the Super League have a dip.

The Giants have the accolade of conceding more penalties than any other team and, in my view, this reflects more the attitude of referees towards the Giants, who are not the flavour of the month with the refereeing fraternity.

Although Jon Sharp complained about referee Smith’s final decision at Hull, the reality was that he had been a complete partisan homer for the whole of the game and I complained in writing to the rugby league committee.

Now is the time for supporters to get completely behind the team and for Jon Sharp to show he can adapt the tactics to suit the team and the opposition to ensure a place in the top six.

Who knows, Twickenham last year and Old Trafford this year is not beyond this team.

I will be down in London this weekend and will take the opportunity of giving support against the Harlequins.

Dr AG Murphy

Edgerton