Huddersfield’s new signing Tom Symonds has admitted that St Helens DID try and sign him before he joined the Giants.
Symonds, who joined the struggling Giants from Manly, is expected to make his home debut when Huddersfield play Wakefield in the Challenge Cup quarter-final on Thursday.
It was understood that Huddersfield had almost completed a deal before Saints tried to hijack the move with a last minute bid, but the 27-year-old ultimately decided to move to the John Smith’s Stadium.
And Symonds, who made his debut in last week’s victory over Salford, confirmed that the Saints had shown interest before deciding on Huddersfield, who had attempted to sign him for the last couple of years.
“My manager was speaking to them,” Symonds told TotalRL.
“I don’t know if they were a little too late. One thing is to have interest and another is to have something there on paper. I was happy with the Huddersfield opportunity and once I thought about it I wasn’t too concerned about considering other things.
“The big part was the opportunity. They’ve (Huddersfield) made contact with me a few times over the years. The club has been really strong for a couple of years, so being able to come over and help get that back on track was a challenge I really wanted to take on.”
Symonds arrived in the country to the news that Paul Anderson had left the club. It came as a huge shock to the second-row, after revealing that Anderson played a big part in his decision to join the club.
“Having someone really keen to get you is a big part of it,” Symonds said.
“There’s no point beating around the bush, he played a huge part in getting me over here, so it certainly was a shock. It is what it is though. Things don’t change too much and there’s no point dwelling on it now. The other coaching staff have made me feel welcome and like everyone else I’ve got to move on from it. I’m not too concerned where that leaves me.”
