Huddersfield Giants have lost Theo Fages to injury but if any club can cope with something like that it is the Giants.
They have huge depth and in the eyes of Sam Tomkins they have “too many spine players” with the England skipper believing that it means that the very impressive young halfback Oliver Russell would miss out of their strongest 17.
He said on Sky Sports:
“Ian Watson has got a squad together with too many spine players. Some good players are not going to play. I think if they’ve got their best 17 then Oliver Russell misses out.
“He’s a very steady player, he played well tonight, he kicks very well but he’s not quite got that X factor that some of the other players in this squad have got.”
This was something echoed by Jon Wilkin though he would play Oliver Russell alongside Will Pryce and play star signing Jake Connor in the centres:
“Pryce 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.”
“Theo Fages might be gone for a bit now so I’d play Russell and Pryce in the halves. and then it’s where Jake Connor goes in. Jake Connor is apparently ripping the first team to shreds in training. I’d play him centre.”