Huddersfield Giants boss Ian Watson ready to drop big name after St Helens hammering

Lolohea started at full-back and Connor partnered Theo Fages in the halves but neither player could stamp their authority on the Magic Weekend clash as the defending Super League champions ran riot at St James' Park.

With Olly Russell on the verge of returning from injury, Watson insists only Fages' place is safe as the Giants turn their attention to next week's trip to Warrington Wolves.

On the current spine players he considers starters at present, Watson said: "Theo is, if you want me to be blunt.

"If you saw the way Olly Russell trained the other day and you're a half-back or spine player, you're thinking 'I need to perform this week because he's coming back'.

"Everyone knows how much I love Rusty – how he plays the game and what he does, especially defensively – so if you didn't want to play out here today, you're in the wrong game.

"This is what you play for – to play in stadiums like this against the best teams in the competition.

"If you're not in it for that, I don't know what you're in it for."

Huddersfield took an early lead through Kevin Naiqama but had no answer to the rampant Saints as they ran in 48 unanswered points to show they are still the team to beat in Super League.

The Giants remain in ninth place, six points adrift of the play-off positions.

“The most disappointing thing was how poor our left edge was defensively,” said Watson.

"You can say they’ve got some great players and they executed very, very well and smart by them.

"But we weren’t good enough in that area and we basically spent the rest of the second half doing a lot of defending."