Huddersfield Giants’ ‘statement of intent’ after claiming Warrington Wolves victory

Luke Robinson says his Huddersfield Giants side showcased their mental fortitude by hanging on to victory against Warrington Wolves on Saturday afternoon.

The Giants were the better side for large periods of the contest against Warrington at the Halliwell Jones Stadium and scored four tries on the day, with Jacob Gagai getting two, bookending efforts from Jake Bibby and Taane Milne.

However, Warrington woke up after that fourth try, and managed to build on Marc Sneyd’s first half effort with tries from Toby King and Jake Thewlis. Ultimately, though, they couldn’t find a way back into the contest as Huddersfield rallied to secure the 24-16 result.

The Giants have fallen agonisingly short on a number of occasions in the past and the result was just the second they have secured in Super League this season. After going through so much together then, Robinson couldn’t have been happier to see his players succeed.

“At one point in that last few minutes I thought this can’t happen again,” Robinson said on Sky Sports’ live broadcast. “Surely it can’t after what’s happened to us last week against Wigan and against Hull earlier in the year, where we should have come away with the result but didn’t.

“I thought it showed a lot of mental steel from the boys because they’re probably thinking the same as me. When you’re in that situation there’s a lot of pressure on you but I’m so chuffed they got over that mental hurdle.

“I said all along in the second half of the season that we will be building, when teams start to pick up injuries and we’re getting playing back then we’ll build a bit of momentum. We did that in the second half against Leigh, Wigan we should have won, but today we were deserved winners.”

Huddersfield Giants boss hails Andy Kelly decision

Tui Lolohea was the standout from a claret and gold perspective and he was playing in the halves alongside Matt Frawley, who was making his second debut for the Giants after joining from Leeds Rhinos earlier this week.

On the move, Robinson said: “I thought that was a statement of intent from the club. We lost our chief playmaker and it would be very easy to say well we’re suffice with what we’ve got.

“Andy Kelly acted very fast and went we need an experienced half in there. We’ve shown at the beginning of the year that we’ve got really talented individuals in that spine with George Flanagan and Kieran Rush who’s coming through but we need direction.

“Tui Lolohea is one of the best attacking players I think in the league but that’s not his natural game so we identified that really quickly. Really chuffed that the club have acted on it on and brought in an experienced player.

“I know him from his time previous at Huddersfield and he’s best friends with Zac Woolford so we know him as a really good person as well as a good player. We knew he would be good for culture as well as direction around the field.”