IT’S fair to say that Huddersfield Giants head coach Ian Watson was an unhappy man following his side’s 48-6 hammering by St Helens in the second game on Sunday’s Magic Weekend event.
The Giants never really looked like causing Saints problems as Watson’s men were second best throughout.
At the heart of Huddersfield’s problems in 2023 has been the lack of creativity in the halves with only Theo Fages doing enough for Watson to be included as Olly Russell waits in the wings.
“Theo is (the only one doing enough), if you want me to be blunt,” Watson said.
“If you saw the way Olly Russell trained the other day and you’re a half-back or spine player, you’re thinking ‘I need to perform this week because he’s coming back’.
“This is what you play for – to play in stadiums like this against the best teams in the competition.
“If you’re not in it for that, I don’t know what you’re in it for.”
One of two men are going to be dropped – either Tui Lolohea or Jake Connor.
“We knew we were going to start slow and would have to build, hence Jake not having a pre-season where we had to get him in the mindset of how we play, how you do things and win things.
“Tui was at a World Cup, then he went away and got married so he came in later as well. So they have been fighting to get fit throughout the season.
“And they are – they are trying. They are doing things, but it’s no good just trying at this level, you’ve got to be at a certain level all the time and you’ve to have a level of responsibility to do the right things.
“There might be individuals that look at themselves and think they’re way, way off, or they might think they’re doing alright but as you can see today there are some individuals way off the mark.
“That’s for them to get better or for us to replace them and make a choice whether they’re right for us going forward.”
Watson believes that the ‘cutthroat’ nature of rugby league means that such a decision will have to be made.
“It’s not nice as a coach, you don’t want to drop players or take them off the team, you want them to look after their job, do it well and share their happy times.
But sometimes players go through a dip due to form or something outside of rugby. But it’s a cutthroat business and you have to be that way as well. At times you have to make those calls on people.”
