Huddersfield Giants’ fatal error pinpointed by Luke Robinson amid key injury blow

Luke Robinson will be checking on the fitness of Oliver Wilson over the coming days with the forward struggling with a back injury. Huddersfield Giants were well beaten on Friday night as St Helens scored eight tries to run out 46-4 victors at the John Smith’s Stadium.

It was a night that started poorly for the Giants with Tristan Sailor touching down twice early on and it went from bad to worse as they crumbled away to another defeat, with Jake Bibby scoring their only points of the game.

To top it off, Wilson was unable to finish the game for the Giants due to a troublesome back injury that he carried into the contest.

Huddersfield will be looking to bounce back to winning ways on Thursday against Leigh Leopards, but it remains to be seen if Wilson will be involved against Adrian Lam’s side.

“He did a fitness test in the warm-up, that was his fitness test,” Robinson said after the game. “He didn’t train captain’s run and he pulled out of the session before.

“He’s got a back issue and we gave him as much time as we could, we put him in the warm up and he wasn’t very confident before the game if I’m honest but when he got through the warm up he felt he could get through the game. Obviously as the game progressed he came to the bench and said it’s getting worse. I had to bring him off as soon as I could.

“He’s one of our, if not our best, ball carrier really. He gets on the front foot and causes a bit of carnage on the ball and he’s definitely someone that we have a lot of reliance on. He’s someone we desperately need and want on the field and that’s why when he started playing up in the middle of the game, I pulled him straight away.”

On the game itself, the Giants let themselves down in a number of key areas, but Robinson believes one of their major errors was allowing Jack Welsby, who scored a hat-trick, to dictate the contest and play his natural game.

“We gave Welsby way too much time and space,” he added. “One thing you don’t do with players of that quality is give them time and space and he had time and space and he will kill you.

“He’s a very, very talented player particularly when he plays at full-back, he’s very dangerous at the back. We gave him too much time and he definitely took advantage of that.”

Huddersfield Giants signing expected to make debut v Leigh Leopards

Robinson does expect his Huddersfield Giants squad to be boosted going into that Leigh game, though, with new signing Tristan Powell expected to be fit and raring to go for his debut.

“There’s no point bringing him over here and signing him if he isn’t going to play,” Robinson said. “I’ve been an admirer of him for quite a while.

“The recruitment side had been done pretty much when I took over last year but he was one that I was looking at straight away and kept tabs on him. I really like what he brings on the field and his work ethic and his character.

“I don’t want to put too much pressure on him straight way and we’re not going to have too much time to practice with it being a Thursday turnaround but we’re expecting him to make us better.”