Paul Anderson is hoping the Giants can take the anger and emotion they felt at losing to Wigan into next Friday’s home Super League XXI clash against Leeds Rhinos.
Huddersfield were effectively penalised out of Thursday’s DW stadium clash in the second half as the Warriors edged the closest of contests 26-19 to move to the top of the table.
Nathan Mason and Aaron Murphy were both sent to the sin-bin and the Giants were also on the end of some key, controversial calls as they were condemned to a tenth defeat from 12 Super League XXI starts to remain bottom.
Anderson has made his feelings clear about the way the match was handled, claiming Joe Cobb refereed the second half differently to the first after having pressure applied to him at the interval by acting Wigan skipper John Bateman.
As a result, the Giants chief is expecting to be fined by Rugby Football League chiefs for speaking out of turn.
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But whether he is or not, he hopes to turn this negative into a positive for next Friday’s John Smith Stadium West Yorkshire derby showdown.
“I’ve made it perfectly clear about what I thought about the events of Thursday night,” said Anderson.
“I know I may cop a fine over it, but I felt I needed to say it.
“I just want to know what was said by Wigan to the referee at half-time to make him referee the game so differently in the second half.
“Both teams were scruffy around the ruck, but we were the ones who were punished for it.
“From being a game in the first half where the penalty count was pretty even, we all of a sudden found ourselves on the wrong end of a 7-1 count in the second and we were really up against it.
“To be honest, it was disgraceful.
“I know some of what went on was of our own wrong-doing, but a lot of it was down to the way this game was refereed so differently in the second half due to the pressure the officials were placed under.
“As a result, I had a group of players in the dressing room after the game that didn’t deserve to be in a losing team.
“I just told them to keep their heads up, because I was proud of the attitude and endeavour they showed under such challenging circumstances, and that of they carry on showing that sort of character we’ll end up winning a lot more games than we’ll lose.
“So what we have to do now is to take the anger and emotion we’re feeling and transfer that into the Leeds game next Friday.
“The game’s about emotion and you have to play with emotion, and that’s what we’re going to try and do against the Rhinos next week.”
Anderson, meanwhile, has revealed he may already have a replacement lined up for recently-departed forward Larne Patrick, although no announcement is expected in the short term.
However, former St George Illawarra Dragons prop George Rose is reportedly looking to return to action after retiring from the NRL, with the 33-year-old thought to be heading for a Super League club.
Marwan Koukash has said the Rugby Football League should take action against Huddersfield Giants head coach Paul Anderson.
An irate Anderson questioning whether match official Joe Cobb changed his style of refereeing after half-time during the Giants 26-19 Super League defeat against Wigan Warriors at the DW Stadium.
The Salford Red Devils owner took to twitter @drmarwanK, and said: “If I said someone influenced the RFL To get Rangi a 7 game ban, I would have been fined. I hope the RFL do take action.
“In a very fast moving game, refs can make mistakes but do not do anything Wrong.
“Criticising them in public is not good for the game.”
