Super League 2020 Preview - Huddersfield Giants

Huddersfield Giants were one of three clubs who needed to wait until the very last day of the regular season to finally avoid relegation to the Championship. The narrowest of wins, 24-22 against a Catalans Dragons side sleepwalking towards its fifth straight league defeat, was enough to haul Simon Woolford’s side out of the mire. After a fifth-placed finish in 2018 Woolford’s full season in charge was a chastening experience.

Woolford has a massive task ahead of him if he is to stop the Giants from continuing their downward slide towards the second tier. He has put much of this faith in Aidan Sezer, the 28-year-old halfback who has been guiding Canberra Raiders around the park in the NRL for the last four seasons. Danny Brough left a massive hole in the Giants team when he moved across West Yorkshire to Wakefield at the start of 2019 and there is no doubt that at this stage of the careers of both Brough and Sezer that the Australian is a significant upgrade. Yet if the problem previously was that there was too much responsibility on Brough’s shoulders then it might be that the problem has just shifted on to those of Sezer.

The other big NRL import is prop forward James Gavet who arrives from Newcastle Knights. Gavet made 18 appearances for the Knights last term and has over 70 NRL appearances to his name having also had spells with Canterbury Bulldogs, Wests Tigers, Brisbane Broncos and New Zealand Warriors. At 30 he is just about still in his prime and could offer the Giants some much needed go-forward particularly following the loan departure of Sebastine Ikahihifo to Salford Red Devils. The pack is further bolstered by former Catalans Dragons pantomime villain Kenny Edwards who joins the Giants on a three year deal from the French club. Edwards can be a useful impact player but Giants fans sitting down to read all about his struggles with alcohol in the rugby league press this week might feel a touch nervous, even if he has conquered his demons for now.

The rest of the recruitment is more modest, with one-time promising Leeds Rhinos fullback Ashton Golding moving from Headingley after losing his place to Jack Walker, and Joe Wardle rubber stamping his permanent move from Castleford Tigers after a loan spell last season. Chester Butler and Owen Trout have mostly Championship experience and are perhaps not expected to go straight into the first team at this stage.

On the other side of the ledger perhaps the key loss is hooker Kruise Leeming. The 24-year-old has signed a two-year deal with Leeds Rhinos after a season in which he was one of the brighter lights in a fairly dismal campaign. Joining him in Leeds will be the highly rated Alex Mellor while Jordan Rankin’s loan move to Castleford is now permanent. Ikahihifo’s move to Salford looks a curious decision by Woolford given that aside from Gavet the cupboard looks a little bare. Suaia Matagi did not uproot many trees in his first season in England but is a solid enough performer while Matty English is still at a developmental stage of his career. Oliver Wilson and old stagers Ukuma Ta’ai and Paul Clough will need to contribute again but at 33 and 32 years old respectively they are not players at the peak of their powers. Leeming’s hooking role is likely to go to Adam O’Brien who is a very good player in his own right but lacks that creative spark that Leeming can provide.

Huddersfield take on Catalans again in their first outing of 2020 with all of Golding, Sezer, Gavet and Edwards in contention for a debut. Golding will have to fight off competition from the excellent Darnell McIntosh at fullback but has also played for the Rhinos at hooker. McIntosh has featured on the wing in the past but that looks like a waste of his considerable talents. The Giants need their best players on the ball as much as possible so to isolate McIntosh to accommodate Golding makes little sense. NRL veteran Akuila Uate and England’s 2017 World Cup star Jermaine McGillvary are standouts on the wings while the back division also features former Saints and Canberra Raiders utility Jordan Turner. He has Grand Final winning experience that could still prove invaluable even at 31 years of age. Leroy Cudjoe is another veteran centre who has been beset by injuries in recent times but could still have plenty to offer if he can regain his fitness.

Sezer’s halfback partner looks like being another former Saint in Lee Gaskell although Tom Holmes and Oliver Russell will hope to gain more game time at the highest level after promising starts to their careers. Gavet and Matagi look the best options at prop backed up by Ta’ai and Clough and possibly Wilson or Adam Walne. In the back row Michael Lawrence and Wardle will have it all on to keep Edwards and Oliver Roberts out of the team while Aaron Murphy could also feature as well as a number of other positions.

When the Giants return from their opening round clash in France they then host Leeds Rhinos in round two, visit Salford in round 3 before going to Hull KR in round four. Their fifth fixture is a home clash with what should be a rejuvenated Wigan Warriors side before they then travel to face champions St Helens in round 6 on March 6. You get the feeling that three wins from those opening six games would be a solid start with anything more than that a bonus. They won only one of their first six league games last time out and it set the tone for a season of out and out struggle.

The Giants need to control the ball better. Although seven teams made more errors than they did in 2019 only Wigan were forced into making more tackles. Only Salford, Warrington and Wigan missed fewer tackles but the problem was that invariably once the Giants line was broken they conceded points. Only London Broncos conceded more points suggesting that one of the things Woolford should drill into his players is the need to hustle back into position to make the next tackle after the initial break is made. Defences that bend but don’t break usually belong to successful sides. When there are nine sides with a more potent attack than yours it is imperative that you defend well.

In the final analysis I am just not sure that Huddersfield can do it often enough to avoid another battle against the drop. The unknown quantity of Toronto, the schizophrenic fortunes of Wakefield and the continual struggles of Hull KR offer hope that there might be at least one team worse than Huddersfield to preserve their top flight status for another year but like last year it could come down to the wire and a visit to Castleford Tigers in round 29 on September 11. That’s not a fixture you would want if your place in the competition is on the line.