Huddersfield boss Ian Watson says he’s “embracing” the challenge of the club’s tough spell and won’t panic.
Their season is in danger of freefalling after being knocked out of the Challenge Cup and picking up just one win in six games. Ahead of Saturday's tricky test at joint-leaders Warrington Wolves, Giants have also suffered their biggest loss of the year. The 48-6 hammering by champions St Helens was a sobering lesson which reminded Watson’s side - tipped as potential title challengers at the start of the campaign - about how far they are off the pace.
But the 46 year-old is defiant he will get things right with his squad who sit tenth, six points adrift of the play-off spots having already passed the season halfway mark. He says the return tomorrow of scrum-half Olly Russell after two months out with a hamstring issue will be “huge.” And after the “massively disappointing” loss against Saints, Watson insisted they are working through their issues.
He said: "We are a group that is willing to be honest with each other and talk pretty bluntly. The players will express their opinion as well which is good; you want that feedback. Everyone is always learning. I've learnt a hell of a lot more this year in some of the things I could have done better and some things we could have planned better more so than I have in a few years.
"When you come up against a little bit of adversity and things are not going your way, they're the biggest learning opportunities you can get. I'm embracing it at the moment. It's tough and not where I wanted to see us in year three because we wanted to kick on again. Everyone is happy and you enjoy everything when you're winning. But when you're losing it's a test of your character and you see what you're like as a person and who you can rely on and trust."
The ex-Salford boss insists there is no sense of crisis at John Smith’s Stadium regardless of that recent record where their only win since April 14 has come against lowly Castleford. He added: “It's funny because when you're winning people don't recall your record but when you're losing everyone wants to bring your record up and throw stones at you. We were great against Castleford the week before Magic and great for 30 minutes against St Helens but terrible for the rest of that game.
"We know we didn't do well. We felt we'd been going back in the right direction over the last few weeks but the weekend set us back. There weren't masses in it in that first half and we just needed to do things a little bit better, so there isn't a panic at all. There are lots of factors you can look at and start talking about but it's pointless going back through them. The fact is we need to move on and attack this week really confidently and do what we did against Castleford a couple of weeks ago."
But Warrington are looking to bounce back, too, after they ended up suffering a surprise loss against Hull in Newcastle. They are also reeling from Aussie forward Josh McGuire being hit with a 12-game ban and losing Great Britain prop Joe Philbin and scrum-half Josh Drinkwater to injuries. Watson said: “Warrington have been pretty good. They have done really well this year in terms of turning things around. They have got their philosophies right and they rely on a big pack to bash them forward and can play some really good footy off the back of that with people like Daryl Clark and George Williams.”
