Limping over the line

Last updated: 11th April 2008

Rugby League Super League Huddersfield Giants St Helens Kevin Brown Michael Lawrence

Brown: Giant performance needed

The Huddersfield coach will have also been doing some kicking of his own this week, in the shape of two backsides. Kevin Brown and Luke Robinson really needed to come good last week and the points would have been theirs, simple as that.

Stevo
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HUDDERSFIELD v WAKEFIELD
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6pm, Saturday, Sky Sports 2

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If you tune in on Saturday night to see bodies patched up and people limping around, don't think Casualty has swapped sides - it's just Super League XIII!

I am sure we are getting close to nearly a quarter of all front-line players being injured or carrying knocks, which is a remarkable statistic and quite frankly, verging on the ridiculous.

Yes the game has become harder and faster this season, but we are not giving our players time to recover. The gap between seasons is not long enough and even when it begins, our players are being asked to do too much on a week-to-week basis. Bodies just aren't getting enough recovery time.

Over the past four or five years, coaches have become accustomed to utilising their players cleverly. Gone are the days when players were prepared to go at it for the full 80 minutes, but now we see lads being primed for 15 minutes of crash, bang, wallop and then 15 minutes rest.

But this season when a guy might be coming to the end of his stint, another player will go down injured and he has to stay on. In turn he picks up a knock and the whole domino affect begins.

It must be a coach's nightmare. Luckily Jon Sharp and John Kear share the same barber as me, because if they had any hair, they'd have torn it out weeks ago.

Gameplan

If there is still a Super League coach left with jet black hair, he must be the luckiest so-and-so out there and if I were him, I'd go and buy myself a lottery ticket this weekend!

With so many players out it makes it impossible for a coach to come up with a gameplan because he doesn't know from one week to the next, one day to the next, who is going to be fit and able to execute it.

It's great that youngsters are being given their chance, but all the chopping and changing means there is very little rhythm at any club right now.

Wakefield are the perfect example. They are up and down, although they should come into this bolstered by that win over Warrington last week. And they still have players capable of turning the game, which is what is going to settle a few encounters over the coming weeks.

Both Danny Brough and Danny Sculthorpe come into that category, while Sam Obst has also been playing well. I do think, particularly with their away record so poor (they've lost all five on the road), John Kear will send them out cautiously here and wait to see what opportunities come there way - and then look for his star turns to make the most.

Pretty much the same will go for Jon Sharp as well. In fact, he's probably got it worse, with 11 players out. Adam Watene, Matt Blaymire and centre Kevin Henderson joined the absentee list this week, which is the last thing the Giants needed.

Attitude

Especially when they will want to get last week's game against Catalans out of their mind. They should have won that, quite frankly. Ryan Hudson did his best to make sure they did, but in the end his team-mates and their attitude let them down.

It's no surprise to see Sharp calling for a better kicking game going into this, because position will be vital in a game between two sides still struggling for consistency.

The Huddersfield coach will have also been doing some kicking of his own this week, in the shape of two backsides. Kevin Brown and Luke Robinson really needed to come good last week and the points would have been theirs, simple as that.

But they were nowhere to be seen and their side suffered because of it. They have left too much of the kicking to Chris Thorman this season and their have been times when he just wasn't deep enough and has been charged down, leaving them in the mire.

The two-half backs will need to sort that out because their battle with Brough and Jamie Rooney will go a long way to deciding just who will have two points to go with all those bumps and bruises come Sunday.

Stevo says

Home win - If its hard for coaches this season, it is even harder for me to pick these games because there is just no way of predicting how a club is going to progress, or perform, from week to week. But, Wakefield have lost all five on the road and it's at the Galpharm, and that is the only factor I can be certain of, so it's Huddersfield for me. Expect a softly-softly, catchy-monkey game here folks. Everything this season has been played at million miles an hour until one side slowed it down and reaped the rewards. Maybe Wigan's win at Leeds will be a lesson we should learn from...

Stevo's star man

Kevin Brown (Huddersfield) - Like I say, this lad really needs to step up to the plate. It's time to stand up and be counted, because I do think the two half-backs helped condemn Huddersfield to defeat last week. It's going to be a very tight affair and it could well come down to who has the skill factor, the something extra to pull from the hat. That usually starts with your half-backs and if Brown and Robinson can click, they can make sure Brough's contribution is not a winning one.

Huddersfield by 1-5pts is 11/2 with Sky Bet. To have a flutter click here!