‘Miracle in itself’ – Huddersfield Giants chief lifts lid on ‘amazing’ airport efforts and pre-season camp latest

Huddersfield Giants showcased their character and togetherness as a group to make sure they boarded a plane bound for Malaga on Sunday. That’s the belief of director of rugby Andy Kelly, who has described the trip going ahead as planned despite the treacherous conditions as a ‘miracle’.

Huddersfield battled through snow and ice to make their way over the Pennines on Sunday morning and catch a flight from Manchester Airport to the south of Spain. With players being scattered across the M62 corridor, which was covered in a blanket of thick snow over the weekend, simply getting the squad together as one took a huge effort from the group.

Head coach Luke Robinson picked up a handful of players while others had to band together in order to overcome the snow and ice and get themselves to the airport.

That was mission accomplished, but the real hard work has now started for the Giants with the players being pushed to their limits in a warm weather training camp.

“I think the very fact that the players and the staff even left home yesterday was an amazing determination to make this pre-season camp work,” Kelly told the Huddersfield Giants website. “It’s not a cheap exercise, and to have lost it to weather conditions would have been awful for us.

“To their credit, they got to the Giants Training Centre, Birch services and some straight to Manchester Airport. To get on the flight and be here is a miracle in itself. It shows the togetherness that is in the camp and a willingness to solve problems for each other.

“Robbo was picking players up in a four-wheel drive, other players were doing the same. There’s a real togetherness. I thought that yesterday was the first time we had been pressure tested as a group and they came up with all the right answers.

“They’re out there now doing full contact. Although it’s supposed to be warm weather, it’s quite wet and a bit chilly, but not like the conditions at home. It’s a working camp. There’s two sessions a day, with some time off on Wednesday, but even on the day we travel home, they’re training in the morning on the field. There’s not a lot of time to draw breath for them, they’ll be hard at it.”

The camp has been designed as a squad building exercise but, with the new Super League season now just around the corner, boosting fitness levels is imperative. And, it won’t be long before that fitness is put to the test with the Giants facing Bradford Bulls at the John Smith’s Stadium in less than two weeks’ time.

“I try to temper expectations a little bit,” Kelly added about the Bulls contest. “I’ll be looking for signs that what we have seen in pre-season, when we’re under pressure, and revert to our instinctive type, that what we have seen is what comes to the forefront again.

“We talked about determination, tenacity and meeting the challenge that’s outside the box with the travel, we want to see that on the field. I talk about pressure-testing, pre season training is ideal, but playing against teams from outside the group, that’s exactly when you become pressure tested.”