Huddersfield Giants’ trip to Wakefield Trinity is on after fears of cancellation due to Wakefield Trinity’s new pitch.
This comes as an inspection took place today which left Ian Watson relieved by the decision for the game to take place.
He said today:
“We needed the game to be, we couldn’t have the game not on. We’re already a week behind everyone else so we couldn’t have another week off. It would have been detrimental to us and something that would have kicked us in the teeth a bit really.
“You’re always a little bit worried after what you’ve seen through the week but you’ve got to put it to the back of your mind, it’s business now. We train on those kind of surfaces all the time anyway, we’ve got a really good surface that we train on at Siddal which is similar to what Wakefield play on.”
He also said that the situation could have and should have been avoided:
“All this could have been avoided by a little bit more proper planning with what they did in and around the pitches, it looks like it’s been overused and the grass not allowed to knit.
“We threw loads of options forward as a club. We just felt if you looked back at Covid times and how good the game was at adapting in neutral venues, double headers, all that kind of thing. As an organisation why couldn’t we come up with that again?
“I know there was a few clubs who put there hand up to offer their services to Wakefield. I understand Wakefield’s point of view of the financial implications it would put on them but it’s a consequence of their actions, not Huddersfield’s actions. For that reason I felt they should have looked at an alternative stadium but it is what it is now.
“We’re more than happy to play at Wakefield, we spoke as a group the other day and said we want to play this week whether it’s Wakefield or anyone else, we can’t have a week off.
“We train on that kind of surface so hopefully the experience and the body training on those surfaces will help us anyway. What we have got though is a really good medical team who have got things in places if anything arises from that game.
“It’s about preparing, making sure the medical team have got things for after the game so it lessens the impact of whatever results we get from the game. The big thing for us is to focus on the game though.
“They are good surfaces to play and train on, I’m all for them but they’ve just got to be right when you go on them. You’ve just got to do your due diligence to make sure they’re in good condition and make sure they’re not an issue.”
