Ian Watson believes Huddersfield Giants have the best ‘two short-kickers’ in Super League

Huddersfield Giants took on Castleford Tigers at the John Smith’s Stadium live on Sky Sports.

It wasn’t the best of games with errors aplenty in the first-half, with a Greg Eden try the only points in the first 40 minutes for the visitors.

Huddersfield managed to claw their way back into proceedings with Olly Russell and Tui Lolohea dominating proceedings.

And, it was from those two that the Giants had their first points as a pinpoint Lolohea kick was dotted down by Russell despite the attentions of Danny Richardson.

It was Lolohea who fired the pass out for Louis Senior to dive in acrobatically at the corner for a fine finish as the Giants led 10-4 at the break.

The Tigers hit back just seven minutes into the second-half as Richardson fed Alex Mellor after the halfback had kicked a perfect 40/20.

However, two tries in two minutes from Huddersfield threatened to blow the game apart as Leroy Cudjoe took advantage of a dreadful Eden mistake to pick up a loose ball and dive over before Lolohea raced over after Toby King was sent through a huge gap.

Ricky Leutele got in on the act moments later, with Senior getting his second and Chris McQueen barging over to make it 36-10 with five tries in 18 minutes.

Winning head coach Ian Watson waxed lyrical about his side’s performance.

“First-half was a little bit scratchy, we were clunky last week but I thought our defensive attitude was outstanding and that’s something we can build on,” Watson said.

“We had discipline issues where we let Cas back into the game but second-half we were outstanding and we were clinical.

“We felt like we were trying to chase the game at times. Tui (Lolohea) was diamonds and rocks and he was lot more diamonds in the second-half.

“We’ve got two of the best short kickers in the competition in Theo (Fages) and Tui. That’s what they are here for and get some repeat sets on the back of it.

“We’ve been a little bit inconsistent but our middles were fantastic defensively.

“We didn’t approach last weeks game in the right manner, they should have been respected. We dipped our toe and got a bit of a spanking.”

Watson now wants his Huddersfield side to grab the opportunity with both hands to get to a Grand Final.

“But we are sat in a nice position in time and that opportunity doesn’t always come around so we have to take it.”

“You’ve always got to aim higher and aim as big as you can and miss small. We’ve done a good job today. We’ve done Salford a favour so if they can beat Catalans it will be good for us.”