Huddersfield Giants v St Helens
Venue: Galpharm Stadium, Huddersfield
KO: 17:00
Referee: T Alibert
Sky Sports 2
Teams:
Huddersfield (17 from): Grix, Lawrence, Cudjoe, Gilmour, Hodgson, Brown, Brough, Crabtree, Robinson, Griffin, O'Donnell, Faiumu, Lunt, Kirmond, Patrick, Horne, McGillvary, Wardle, Ferguson.
St Helens (17 from): Wellens, Gardner, Shenton, Soliola, Meli, Perry, Roby, Graham, Wilkin, McCarthy-Scarsbrook, Ashurst, Magennis, Foster, Armstrong, Ashe, Makinson, Hale, Greenwood, Thompson.
The five players that sat out Huddersfield’s nail biting victory against Batley in the Challenge Cup last weekend, Scott Grix, David Faiumu, Luke Robinson, Dale Ferguson and Jermaine McGillvray, all return. I clearly didn’t pay enough attention to the Batley match last weekend as I swear blind Jerry played; I’m truly baffled. Graeme Horne is also back in the side after missing that game through suspension.
The Giants are still without injured trio: Keith Mason, Andy Raleigh and David Fa’alogo. The latter of which leaves me and many other Giants fans frustrated as he never seems to be fit for a long period.
Huddersfield’s injury list is nothing in comparison to Saints’; they have 11 players out injured. They’re doing amazingly well in the league despite the fact their injury list is endless, and unfortunately it is continuing to grow.
Paul Wellens, Saints’ captain, will return after missing the last three games with a heel injury. Tony Makinson is back in the team, alongside Shaun Magennis and Nathan Ashe. Due to the sheer amount of injuries in the Saints squad coach Royce Simmons has been forced to name three players who have yet to play Super League rugby, they are Scott Hale, Warren Thompson and Joe Greenwood.
Tony Puletua, Chris Flannery, Kyle Eastmond, Leon Pryce, Gary Wheeler, Paul Clough, Carl Foster, Lee Gaskell, Jonny Lomax, Andrew Dixon and Scott Moore make up Saints’ injured eleven, it’s nearly enough for a full team! (If you ignore the fact that most are half backs!)
Huddersfield seem to up their game when they play the so called bigger teams and will be hoping to improve on their shocking performance against Batley last weekend, obviously, I hope they do too! It’ll be difficult for Saints to perform with so many players missing but they’ll do their best and as I have already mentioned they’re doing ridiculously well considering that injuries have been a major problem for them all season. I think it all depends on how well Huddersfield start the match, if they start slowly Saints could take advantage. I think you all know who I want to win…
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