Huddersfield Giants boss highlights suspension problem

Huddersfield Giants lost out to Castleford Tigers 20-14 at the Jungle on Sunday afternoon, in their third and final pre-season encounter.

Ian Watson named a strong starting 13 for this match, with a youthful looking bench that included Connor Carr, who made his first Giants appearance since signing a professional contract.

Despite attacking opportunities from Innes Senior, playing for Castleford Tigers on loan from the Giants, and Sam Halsall, as the first half drew to a close, with defences on top, it remained scoreless as the hooter sounded, with both sides going close, but struggling to find the breakthrough.

Straight after half-time though, it would come and not the way of the Giants, as an offload saw Liam Watts given the space to cross for the first Tigers try, with a second coming straight after.

The Giants were caught in defence, after Liam Watts was involved again, his offload in the centre off the park was moved out wide for Qareqare to race away and feed Jacob Miller, who was momentarily stopped before supplying former Giant Sam Wood to score, with winger Josh Simm crossing soon after.

A 10-minute spell for the Giants to forget, as they found themselves 12-0 down, however Adam Swift did get points on the board for Ian Watson’s side, his diving finish in the corner bringing us back within reach.

Danny Richardson’s restart would then be spilled by the try scorer, and from the scrum, Sam Wood grabbed his second of the game and a home victory was in sight.

Craig Lingards’ men attacked again, with 10 minutes to go, but the pass went astray and was kicked forward by Tui Lolohea, and then collected by Elliot Wallis who raced 60m to score vs his former side, a game for former wingers scoring against their old clubs.

This was then complemented by an outstanding effort by George Flanagan, who dummied two Castleford defenders to feed Connor Carr for his first Giants try, with his first touch of the ball.

The Giants looked to attack again through Olly Russell and Connor Carr, who combined down the left-hand side, but time had ran out and the hooter sounded, with Castleford running out 20-14 winners on a windy afternoon.

Huddersfield Giants boss unhappy with suspensions

Ian Watson spoke after the game about a potential injury to Jake Connor as well as raising concerns about suspensions.

Watson stated on the club’s official website: “He’s all right. Yeah, they’re always the worries. It looks like someone’s dropped down badly on his leg, but in a game like this, you’re worrying about picking up injuries.

“You’ve seen it throughout the league already. There’s too many players who’ve already picked niggles up and then all of a sudden we’ve got a suspension as well at the start of the year.

“So whilst the friendlies are needed to get people ready, you’ve got to be careful of what suspensions you pick up and obviously any injuries.

“Hopefully, today it looks like we’ve come through pretty healthy so that was the main thing today as well as getting some minutes under some people’s belts.”