IAN WATSON has admitted that it is the toughest coaching period of his career at the Huddersfield Giants as things stand.
The West Yorkshire side finds itself third from bottom of the Super League table following just five wins from 16 games.
Despite the influx of new signings ahead of the 2023 season, such as Jake Connor, Kevin Naiqama and Esan Marsters, Huddersfield have failed to fire.
And for Watson, that makes it a steep learning curve.
“Yeah, probably (the most difficult period of his career). Not just in terms of rugby. In rugby, I’m learning a hell of a lot about things, you learn more in these situations than in a Grand Final or Challenge Cup situation,” Watson said.
“It’s a tough period but sometimes you have to go through them and learn from them. It happens to everybody and all coaches where they face adversity and it happens as a player and in life it’s about how you respond to that.
“I would say it’s probably the most challenging period for definite.”
Things do not get any easier for the Giants or Watson as the club prepares to travel to the Catalans Dragons on Saturday.
But, Watson will welcome back Theo Fages as well as Olly Russell, the latter whom left the field early in the 22-6 loss to the Wigan Warriors last weekend.
“Olly is fine, and he’s not as bad as what we first feared. He was in the changing rooms after and he was confident. It was more the shock of the impact.
“He is in contention for the weekend. We will lose someone with injury on the outside backs but that will be clarified this afternoon.
“Theo will be named in the squad. I’ve banged on about it for year that if you get a settled spine you will do better. You cant get that continuity and timing so it disrupts everything you are doing.”
The Giants will also be without Fenton Rogers, who picked up a ban after playing for the Bradford Bulls a fortnight ago.
“It’s kind of being that kind of season as a club and a season, things are out of your control. He had a really good debut and now he’s got the disappointment of missing out on the team through something that he did at Bradford.”