Huddersfield Giants half-back Danny Brough has admitted that despite being sat in the promotion places in the Qualifiers, the table does have a misleading feel to it – and will continue to do so until all seven rounds of fixtures have been played.
The Giants are currently on a three-game winning run, and know that victory at Leigh on Saturday afternoon will go a long way towards securing their Super League place for 2017.
But Brough admitted that there’s no point focussing on the table as it stands – it’s only worth looking at when the Qualifiers has finished.
“The table is a bit misleading at the moment,” he said.
“The table doesn’t look pretty until it’s done and you survive; we’re not focussing on it at the moment, we need to make sure we avoid that Million Pound Game and ensure we’re in that top two or three come the end of it all.”
Brough calmed talk that the Leigh fixture is the biggest of Huddersfield’s seven-game Qualifiers campaign – instead saying that all their remaining fixtures are equally as huge.
He said: “They’re all big games, not just this Leigh one.
“We’ve got Leeds and Hull KR coming up on the horizon too and we know we’ve got to win two out of the next three games to make sure we stay in Super League. There are jobs on the line so we’ve got to be switched on.”
Brough, however, admitted that the challenge posed by the Centurions will be a big one.
“Leigh are a great team, they’re playing well and they’ve got a lot of confidence,” he said.
“They’re a good team, they’ve beat two Super League teams. We have to be one of those Super League teams that turn them over. That’s our job and something we need to do.”
“They stay in the grind and come strong in the second half like they did against Hull KR. We’ll be looking to build on our own game and keep our game strong in the second half. I expected them to be a force; having failed as miserably as they did last year I thought they’d put them right for sure.”
And Brough believes that if the Giants do survive the Qualifiers, they will be much better equipped to avoid them next year thanks to the work being done by new coach Rick Stone.
“I’m enjoying it under Rick,” Brough said.
“He’s brought a different style of play to us and it’s taken some adapting to but we’re working hard in training and if we can survive this, we’ll be stronger for it next year.”
