Huddersfield Giants were handed their third consecutive loss by Leigh Leopards last Friday at the John Smiths Stadium as they sit 10th in the Betfred Super League.
In May of last year, Huddersfield Giants were preparing for the Challenge Cup final against Wigan in a bid to win their 7th ever Challenge Cup. While they did come up short it was a very encouraging season for the Rugby League outfit. With the potential for success shown, expectations for the club grew going into this season with many supporters and pundits predicting the Giants to challenge for the Super League Trophy.
Supporter’s ambitions continued to rise when the club announced the signing of England International Jake Connor as he returned to his hometown club. Even Giants prop Matty English said in an interview with The Mirror that the team is “primed to become the new name on the Betfred Super League trophy.”
However, it was a slow start to the Super League season with the club losing three out of their opening four fixtures of the season. Since then, several key players have been out with injury including Theo Fages and Olly Roberts and the Giants have struggled to find form with a heavy defeat at the hands of Castleford tigers and Hull KR along with their most recent defeat to Leigh Leopards. This leaves Huddersfield in the bottom three of the Super League, far away from their hopes of becoming Super league Champions.
After the defeat to Leigh Leopards, head coach Ian Watson spoke to Yorkshire Live and provided his explanation of the club’s recent poor form saying “We’re the problem and we need to be the solution. The last three weeks have been terrible from us and not good enough today. We had a real simple game plan today. I’m at fault because I picked the team. I’m the one who makes the decisions. It’s only us who can fix it.”
After the final whistle on Friday, many Giants fans took to Twitter to voice their frustrations with one twitter user @rvynerp writing “What on earth is going on with Giants? Something desperately wrong given the players they have!” Another twitter user by the name of @paulfisher20 wrote “Embarrassing.”
The Giants’ next two fixtures are no easy task facing Castleford Tigers and St. Helens Saints, and supporters will be hoping to see improvement on the pitch as soon as possible.