Tuesday 25 April 2017 10:51, UK
Brian Carney singled out Huddersfield, Salford, and the Championship sides for this week's column...
Good week for the Championship sides
Let's address one thing first; I understand that last weekend's games are considered the last fixtures of the Easter period, and are perhaps the most attritional for the players.
With that said, what a result for Hull KR over Leigh in the Challenge Cup. The Robins are going well in the Championship, and have what I believe to be a well though-out plan to get themselves back into Super League, which may see them recruit heavily ahead of the Super 8 Qualifiers.
And the win over the Centurions is a great little marker for them ahead of those Super 8 Qualifiers, with Leigh being one of the teams they may well face in that part of the season. For their playing staff, it's good to know when you come up against the likes of Leigh you can put out a squad who can beat them.
However, Swinton were absolutely the story of the weekend. For the Lions, for whom Super League would be a pipe dream at best in the current moment, mark their win over Huddersfield as a very special day in the club's history.
The club has a phenomenally successful history, but for now they should savour that victory because it was a really special and gutsy win. To win it with four minutes to go with that late try, and for a team to manage that while doing it tough in the Championship, is great to see.
The ones you'd be jealous of are the Swinton players who played in the game, but also the Swinton fans that went there and watched that. That's what sport is all about.
Of course it also leaves a lot of head-scratching in Huddersfield, but more on that later...
Good week for Denis Bett's Vikings
When we arrived to cover Widnes' game against Saints on Friday, there was a real air of optimism around the club.
That was probably down to the team that Denis Betts was able to put out; when the team sheet was submitted there was a real sense of belief with their strong forward pack and electric backs.
They were up against a St Helens side who had beaten Castleford a few days previously, but the Vikings delivered a gritty and determined performance. One that would give their fans hope - not they would get out of the bottom four necessarily, but that they will be in Super league again in 2018.
The Vikings must now make it a game they kick on from, because a loss after a performance like that would be devastating to the club.
Much like Warrington after their draw with Hull, they could not go out the following week and lose to Leeds. Likewise for Widnes, they have to back it up with another win against Salford on Sunday.
Good week for Salford after a tough test
Speaking of Salford, I would say they had the trickiest Challenge Cup assignment of all. Granted they were playing against a team in league one and not in the Championship, but they had everything to lose, whereas Toronto had the game to lose but little else.
Toronto were going in as underdogs, but as a side everyone was aware could frighten Salford. The Red Devils then lost Justin Carney to a red card, which set things up for a historic win for the Canadian outfit.
For Salford to dig themselves out of a hole like that, that's the stuff that a coach looks for - how your team does in adversity.
A high-profile Cup game against the team that's making the most noise in the world of rugby league and you're down to 12 men at the end of the Easter period - what can you do? Salford really stood up to deliver a character-defining win.
Bad week for the Giants
Huddersfield had two debutants against Swinton, and didn't have anything close to a full-strength squad, but even with injuries they should have enough within their organisation to beat Swinton.
I've spoken before about how worrying a time it is for the Giants, and last week's loss is just more unnecessary and unwelcome pressure on the coaching staff, the administrators, and the players.
The cloud over Huddersfield would have gotten a whole lot darker this week.
They parted company with Ryan Brierley, and rumours of Danny Brough's imminent departure will not go away. Quite what they would do if that happened, I'm not sure. The polarising nature of Brough is an issue, but his ability to win games cannot be overlooked.
Right now the Giants are out of the Challenge Cup and they are in a precarious position in Super League. They've already changed their coach, so these problems seem to be deeper rooted than something that can be solved with a change up top.
Bad week for Castleford - or was it?
While I don't think the Tigers' loss to Hull will trouble their top-four prospects too much, it means consecutive losses for the first time this season. Outwardly that's bad in the sense of dropping four points, but it also gives them a chance to test their ability to face adversity.
They have faced consecutive losses in previous years obviously, but they haven't faced it as a group when they've been favourites. Losing two or three in a row when nobody really fancies your chances of winning the title is one thing, but when you lose two in a row and people have you marked down as Grand Final favourites, it's a different prospect altogether.
Castleford are learning to deal with the pressures that Warrington, St Helens, Leeds and Wigan deal with on a regular basis: expectation is very different when you're at the top of the table.
Who's going to crumble? All these things will be revealed in weeks like this.
Wakefield and Warrington - scoreboard v performance
I generally think that by and large, you get what you deserve in a game. It's very rare that the losing team deserves to win.
Having said that, Wakefield came as close as you can possibly get to winning a game without actually winning it.
Does that make it a good week for Warrington? Yes, in the sense that they got two points, and remain unbeaten in five. However, a lot of these problems that they've been having in games are still there. Show me 80 minutes where they've showcased the kind of game they are capable of.
It's been a while since we've seen Warrington in full flight for an entire fixture - if at all this year. You could point at individual halves; particularly the first one against Brisbane, and maybe the second half against Hull, but not for a whole game.
You could talk about fatigue, but nobody talked about fatigue when Widnes beat St Helens, and the mistakes Warrington are making are the same mistakes they were making in February.
Ryan Atkins' try showed what Warrington can do when they're in full cry, but they will need more consistency if they are to prove that they're a club with Grand Final ambitions.
