Huddersfield Giants “got rolled” in their forward pack, according to Luke Robinson as the head coach bemoaned his side for ‘not investing early’ in their defeat to Castleford Tigers.
It marked a ninth straight defeat to start the Super League season as the Tigers scored five tries to win 30-12 with the Giants rarely threatening. They did however find some more freedom late on, something Robinson also called out with the game “gone” by that point.
With a fixture run of Hull FC, Hull KR, St Helens, Leigh Leopards, Wigan Warriors, Warrington Wolves and Catalans Dragons, it’s hard to see where the next win comes from with the best chance likely being away to today’s opponents in early July.
However, they won’t have much of a chance in any of their upcoming games if they perform again as they did today with a clear lack of direction, somewhat down to their young half-back duo of Kieran Rush and George Flanagan, but more so from an intensity point of view.
Robinson conceded that when he spoke post-match on Sky Sports, bemoaning his side’s lack of energy early in the game.
He explained: “There were some probably decisions that went a little bit against us early on, 50-50, but you make your own luck in sport and I don’t think we invested enough energy early on.
“Generally, you get the calls when we invest early. For me, it probably shows where we are a little bit mentally.”
Huddersfield Giants boss hits out after being “rolled” by Castleford
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Perhaps more annoying was the fact that Huddersfield did start to be more direct later in the game and that’s something Robinson criticised his side for, calling for more mental toughness during this tough period in time.
Robinson argued: “We started playing better rugby, we had some more line speed, a little bit better movement with the ball, we actually attacked the line a little bit more when the game was gone. We should be doing that from the opening moments.
“The game was gone and it takes mentally strong individuals, mentally strong teams and that’s what we’ve got to try and find because those players, those teams do it when it’s on the line, when the heat’s at its highest. They’re the ones that perform under pressure and at the moment, we seem to go into a shell a little bit.”
Also frustrating was how the Giants were unable to capitalise when Joe Westerman was sent to the sin bin after half an hour, giving Huddersfield an opportunity to use the man advantage to claw their way back from 16-6. Instead, they went in at the half 18-6 down.
Their head coach pointed out: “They had a man sin-binned and we only managed to put one set on in the latter end of that first half. We can’t build any pressure. When the pressure’s on us in the moment, we seem to wilt rather than taking the bull by the horns, and we’ve got to find a way.”
Castleford have recently recruited in their pack with loanees Jordan Dezaria and Hugo Salabio featuring, as well as signing Tom Amone, and Robinson admitted his side were simply dominated in that aspect of the game.
“We got rolled,” he admitted, adding: “We got rolled and I said that half time. From the very first set I think we had a really good tackle the first set but from then on we didn’t. They found a little bit of space and created an offload and all of a sudden our kick defence (went wrong). It all comes down to the ruck investing early and we’ve got to find a way of doing that at the beginning of the game rather than the end of the game.”
With Hull FC at Magic Weekend next up, Robinson teased that new men could return with the club desperately missing the likes of Adam Clune and his experience.
He said: “Hopefully we’ve got a couple more troops back, fingers crossed getting a few more key personnel back, which should give us a little bit more guidance but I think what we’ve got is what we’ve got at the moment.”
