It’s fair to say that Ryan Brierley has moved about a bit in recent years. Having left Leigh Centurions, his moves have taken him as far afield as Huddersfield and most recently Toronto.
Now, much more settled at Hull Kingston Rovers, the half back is now preparing for a battle with one of his former clubs, as the in-form Giants head to Hull College Craven Park.
It’s the Robins first home game since their opening weekend mauling of Wakefield Trinity, but comes hot on the heels of a narrow Hull Derby defeat and a humbling defeat at Headingley last week.
After two such upbeat and confident performances, what went wrong for Tony Smith’s side against the Rhinos?
Speaking candidly, he said: “Not great, it was something we didn’t expect at all. We expected Leeds to be good, because they didn’t play particularly well in round one.
“Obviously, having the week off freshened them up more than we realised. I hate to put it down to one of those days, but it really was.
“The attitude of the boys trying to chase back, trying to save tries, I think we managed to hold them up over the line about seven or eight times.
“If you win that game everybody talks about how good your defence is, because we lost heavily no-one will mention it.
“We need to probably change our focus a little bit and our energy into the other side of the field so, trying to stop them getting close to our line.
“I think we just need to put our energy into different parts of the field and be a bit smarter in where we’re being desperate.”
