Woolford previews Wire clash

Simon Woolford previews the Giants 'home' fixture with Warrington Wolves

Simon Woolford sees stricter protocol around players bio-security as 'inevitable' and called for NRL-style 'bubbles' to prevent further Covid-19 outbreaks after 8 positive tests were identified at Hull FC.

“This was inevitable, it was going to happen and I’d be surprised if this is the only case we have between now and the end of the season,” Woolford said.

“It’s not hard to get on social media and see players from all clubs going out and about doing things they should probably be more careful with.”

“I’ve spoken to our Covid-19 officer a couple of times about me being really surprised when we got back that there were no bubbles and no strictly staying within them.

“With the looseness about what players are doing away from rugby, there was always going to be an instance like the Hull FC one.

“I was surprised some stringent protocols weren’t put in place. We had a long time in lockdown to get this right but I think it could’ve been stronger from the powers that be.

“But this was a matter of when, not if and it’s not too late for the RFL to put its foot down and bring in some policy to prevent this happening again.”

Onto the prospect of facing Warrington Wolves, Woolford confirmed that Lee Gaskell will miss the next two or three games due to a broken thumb in the closing stages of the Leeds game, but is boosted by the return of two experienced players. 

"Not looking too bad. Gaskell will miss our next two or three games - he broke his thumb in the final minutes of the Leeds game and Murph has a minor shouler issue.

"Ukuma Ta'ai and Jermaine McGillvary are available, so while we lose a couple, we get a couple back. So we're not looking too bad."

On recovering after last week's defeat, Woolford conceded that the golden-point loss was hard to take but the time between matches has been a blessing, not a curse as it has allowed the squad to pick apart the defeat and learn from it. 

"Normally you wanna get straight back on the horse but mentally it took a lot out of us so having a break has helped. We looked where we went wrong and we've freshened up mentally. We've had a good week, we're nice and fresh."

Finally on his opponents, defensive strength will be the key to victory, says Woolford.

"They like to throw the ball around, offload the footy and play off the cuff a little bit. Ratchford, Austin and Clark thrive off that. We're gonna need to limit the offloads, we've been good defensively apart from a 10 minute period against Wigan and a 15 minute period against Leeds."

Huddersfield face Warrington Wolves on Saturday 15th August at 6:30pm on Sky Sports Arena