Warrington Wolves v Huddersfield Giants: Ian Watson turns to Oliver Russell to spark season into life

The Giants find themselves way off the pace in the play-off battle following a fourth defeat in five Super League games against St Helens last time out.

Huddersfield have suffered from a lack of continuity in the spine but that could be about to change after Oliver Russell was given the green light to return from injury.

Russell is set to partner Theo Fages in the halves at the expense of either Jake Connor or Tui Lolohea.

"He's been big for us since I came in," said Watson on Russell.

"When I got here, people weren't talking about him being a first-choice half-back but he's grown, developed and is in a better place now.

"He's been a huge, huge loss for us. It's probably no secret what I think of Oliver Russell and how much he helped us and controlled the team last year alongside Theo. At times he had to do that without Theo so he really matured.

"Theo has started to find his feet and is playing pretty well. We just need to build on the back of that and get some consistency within our spine now."

The Wolves enjoyed a blistering start to the season but have lost four of their last six Super League matches and are dealing with the fallout from Josh McGuire's latest ban for unacceptable language.

Watson is paying no attention to Warrington's travails as he looks to get his own house in order.

"I've just been focusing on us so I don't know what's happening at Warrington,” he said.

"We got back on board against Castleford and for the first 33 minutes we were really, really good against Saints. It was disappointing to go in behind at half-time and really disappointing to crumble in the second half.

"It's about us getting back to where we need to be."