Ian Watson deserves chance to find Huddersfield Giants solution and save season - James O'Brien comment

Metronomic for a large part of the year, Ian Watson's side lost their way as the play-offs drew closer.

The Giants were still grinding out results but failed to convince after a 25-0 defeat by 12-man St Helens at the Totally Wicked Stadium.

It was a reality check that Huddersfield struggled to recover from.

Although they could point to the absence of influential figures at the time, it was becoming apparent that the Giants were snookered if plan A didn't work.

Salford Red Devils proved that notion emphatically in the play-offs, dishing out another nilling that left Huddersfield searching for an effective plan B.

On the evidence of the opening 12 rounds, that long winter search proved fruitless.

Worse still, the Giants can no longer rely on plan A, which was to grind teams down before turning territory into points.

So strong at the John Smith's Stadium last year, their home form has deserted them.

Huddersfield's pack isn’t as dominant and when Watson's side do get close to the opposition line, their attacking play is telegraphed with a kicking game that is substandard at best.

The pressure is on Watson to find a solution after being armed with one of the strongest squads in Super League, albeit one that is different to 2022.

Although he managed to land the likes of Jake Connor, Esan Marsters and Kevin Naiqama, the loss of Ricky Leutele and Danny Levi can't be underestimated.

The Giants are missing Leutele's power close to the line, while Nathan Peats doesn’t offer the same threat as Levi.

Huddersfield haven’t been helped by injuries to controlling half-backs Theo Fages and Oliver Russell but the problems appear to run deeper.

After all, Fages and Russell were Watson's half-back pairing for the 28-0 hammering by Salford in last year's play-off eliminator.

Watson was critical of his spine in the immediate aftermath, labelling the performance "real dumb" and accusing his players of a lack of composure.

Fages went into that game undercooked after missing the previous two matches with a head injury, which has been the story of his time at the Giants.

After missing 15 of Huddersfield's 32 games last year, the former St Helens half-back hasn’t been seen since round four due to a calf injury.

Russell, meanwhile, suffered a torn hamstring last month and is still a few weeks away from a return himself.

There was a sense that the Giants would play with more flair and carry a greater threat with Connor, Tui Lolohea and Will Pryce in the spine but that hasn't materialised.

After a promising performance against Catalans Dragons, they were guilty of playing as individuals in the back-to-back defeats in Hull.

That was something Watson alluded to in the aftermath of the nilling by Hull KR when he told certain players to "put your ego away".

His reaction was to drop Pryce and hand Kieran Rush his debut but the result was the same, a 30-4 home drubbing by Leigh Leopards.

Watson is still trying to work out his best team, as evidenced by the regular changes on the wings.

Ash Golding's energy and enthusiasm have been missed during a run of four defeats in five games which leaves the Giants off the pace in the play-off race.

Even accounting for Golding's absence, Watson has a wealth of options to select from for the two wing spots.

Perhaps that is part of the problem – that Huddersfield's squad is too big, too deep.

As Chelsea have shown in the Premier League, packing a squad to the brim with talent doesn’t guarantee success and can in fact have an adverse effect.

While it is a stretch to compare the two situations, the talk of egos together with the club's form suggests all is not well at Huddersfield.

After steering the club to the Challenge Cup final and third place in Super League last year, Watson has enough credit in the bank to be given the chance to arrest the slide.

The temptation would be to take the shackles off but first things first, Huddersfield simply need to get back to winning the grind and showing the resilience that left them on the brink of success in 2022.

Perhaps the Giants were never as good as they were painted in pre-season predictions – but Watson's side are certainly better than 10th place in Super League.

All is not lost for Huddersfield, as Salford and Leeds Rhinos proved last season.

At the same stage in 2022, the Red Devils were ninth and eventual Grand Finalists Leeds found themselves down in 10th.

By contrast, the Giants peaked too early and were beaten to the punch by a side riding a wave of momentum.

Huddersfield could yet do a Salford or Leeds this year but first need their own lightbulb moment.

To get to that point, Watson needs everybody singing from the same hymn sheet, which could be his biggest challenge.