Huddersfield Giants head coach Luke Robinson has questioned the Super League schedule, slamming his side’s “killer turnaround” ahead of Thursday night’s game against Castleford Tigers.
The Giants played in sweltering heat on Saturday evening when they faced Catalans Dragons in the South of France, however, they’re one of the first teams back in action this week as they take part in the Thursday night match.
Huddersfield will travel to the Jungle having had limited training time this week given the time it took them to return and recover from that 32-0 loss in Perpignan and Giants’ boss Luke Robinson has questioned the schedule.
Labeling it a “killer turnaround”, Huddersfield boss Robinson highlighted the fact that there was no Super League game last Thursday with the scheduled match of Leeds versus Leigh moved on account of Leigh undergoing the same turnaround the Giants face this week.
“Did you notice there was no game last Thursday,” he pointed out when speaking to BBC Radio Leeds.
“There was no TV game as Leigh had the same sort of fixture and I don’t know if they just said that they’re not doing it but they got it changed to a Friday night game instead.”
It’s unclear how Leigh avoided playing on Thursday as the RFL confirmed to Serious About Rugby League that there are no strict rules in place about preventing five-day turnarounds, something the Giants now face.
Huddersfield Giants receive welcome injury boosts for Castleford Tigers’ clash
One positive for Luke Robinson is the fact that two key players return to his 21-man squad whilst a number of others are on the brink of a return.
Talking through his squad, he confirmed: “We’ve potentially got Adam Swift and Ollie Wilson available so that’s good news. Fenton Rogers and Aidan McGowan have just completed a session so they’re not far away so there are players coming back in.
“Sam Hewitt is still another week off, he had to go see a specialist regarding his head knock so he won’t be available for at least another week.
“It’s nice to have bodies back with the killer turnaround that we’ve had to endure, being in Catalans on Saturday and playing on Thursday night.”
Asked about the logistics of the ‘killer turnaround’, he explained: “It just makes it a little more difficult in terms of getting on the field really with all the travel involved and getting lads to rest and recover. We got on the field today and those with niggles and knocks came through so that’s good news.”
Robinson is hoping for a major bounce back after a poor performance in Catalans and despite bagging the short turnaround, he even pointed to it as something that could help.
“The last few weeks felt like we’ve been building so to go and perform the way we did was really disappointing,” he said of Saturday’s loss to Catalans.
“It wasn’t just the defeat but the manner but luckily for us, we get to play Thursday. It’s not great in some aspects but it’s also an opportunity to get back on the field and put some wrongs right.”
