Ian Watson defends decision despite Jon Wilkin and Sam Tomkins comments

Will Pryce was at his electric best last Friday night for Huddersfield Giants but Sam Tomkins questioned after the game why Ian Watson has the talented young man on the bench.

When asked if the NRL bound youngster should be starting, Tomkins said on Sky Sports:

“I believe so, I think he’s the best spine player they’ve got. He can do things that no other player in that Huddersfield squad can do. Ian Watson has just described him as phenomenal and he has him on the bench.

“If you’ve got a phenomenal player does he not get into your team?”

Meanwhile, Jon Wilkin echoed these thoughts: “He gets the ball and he makes a difference, he’s willing to take people on and the net result is that people are more passive and you get more opportunity to run the ball.”

Yesterday, speaking to the press, Huddersfield boss Ian Watson responded to these comments defending his decision:

“I’ve seen those comments in the press and that’s what they’re there for. They’re on Sky to get interested topics brought up.

“The easy one is obviously because Will came on and played phenomenal. He probably wasn’t at that level the weeks before but that’s young players for you.

“I think if you look back at Sam Tomkins career in his first year he came in and scored four or five tries in his first game and everyone was raving about him but then he didn’t play another game for the first team all year again that season.

“The year after he was in and out, he was bench, he was starting. It’s developing young players.

“I don’t know who was playing ahead of him at the time at halfback but it will have been good players and there’s some good players here at Huddersfield as well.

“Will knows he’s part of a team. He is a great team player, he knows that sometimes he might have to start on the bench and sometimes he might start.”

He rounded off his answer by saying: “It’s just what we see as best for the team.

“That’s there job to bring things up and bring interest. It doesn’t worry me, that is for them to talk about as well and if they’re talking good about Will Pryce then that’s good.

“I don’t worry about outside noise, I just worry about ourselves and what we have to do.”