Huddersfield Giants star Joe Wardle insists that each and every one of their four remaining games this season is being treated as a Grand Final: starting with Friday’s showdown against London.
Rick Stone’s men head into the resumption of the Super 8s knowing three wins from their final four games will probably guarantee Super League status for 2017, having won two of their first three.
However, they still have to play the likes of Hull KR and Leeds – as well as the Championship’s leading two sides.
And Wardle is fully aware of the magnitude of all four games, and says nobody is getting carried away with the talk concerning next weekend’s game against Leigh until this London fixture is out of the way.
“Every game is like a Grand Final now,” he says.
“We can’t afford to go out there and lose points, we’ve got to take things one week at a time but the key thing above all else is to keep winning.
“We’re not thinking about Leigh, we can’t afford to because we’ve got something important to focus on first, and that’s London. They ran Leeds really close and they’ll be a tough ask. If we get two wins from the next two it’s happy days.”
Wardle is back in the centres after an impressive year at back-row last season – but he says that long-term, he sees himself becoming a forward.
Speaking of the centres, he says: “It’s not a position I like now I’ve played back-row, that’s where I really want to play.
“But for the team I’m playing centre and I’ll play anywhere for this team. It’s my job at the moment, I’m doing it well and everyone else is doing theirs well which is why we’ve got two wins on the board.”
And Wardle insists that after back-to-back wins, Stone’s men are full of confidence ahead of Friday’s meeting with Andrew Henderson’s side.
“Confidence is really high; we’ve changed a few things since Paul left and everyone has got to buy into what we’re doing. We’ve had a kick up the backside, everyone is enjoying it and that’s showing with results on the field.”
