
Huddersfield Giants coach Ian Watson wants the club to go back to the future as he tries to regain former glories.
In his second season in charge, Watson is keen to return to the rich heritage of the past as he plots the years ahead.
Following Saturday night’s opening 42-14 victory in Toulouse, Watson told League Express: “In your first season, you’ve been brought in to address some issues. In your second season you should have fixed those problems and start building in the right direction.
“I think we’re at that stage now.
“It’s all about getting back to that Huddersfield feel. We’ve had a good pre-season and that included discussions about the history of Huddersfield, bringing in people like Tony Johnson to talk to the boys about what Huddersfield actually means.
“The identity of Huddersfield has been lost for a couple of years and we’re getting that back now and that’s what you’re going to see in the performances of this team. We want the people of Huddersfield to be proud of their team.”
Watson was proud of his team’s performance against Toulouse.
He added, “I’m really pleased because this was a potential banana skin coming here today.
“We don’t really know what they are about, what the surroundings are like, we’ve never been here before.
“But I thought we handled it really well, and once we got some momentum and started to take some energy out of Toulouse’s middles that put us on the front foot.”
Watson will run the rule over two-try-scoring centre Jake Wardle before he plans for Huddersfield’s next fixture at home against Hull KR.
He said, “Jake Wardle rolled his ankle, and we were going to take him off and then he scored and someone fell on it again. So we had to take him off but he’s not too bad; we’ll have to wait and see.”
The above content is also available in the regular weekly edition of League Express, on newsstands every Monday in the UK and as a digital download. Click here for more details.