Huddersfield Giants coach hoping for a change of luck

The West Yorkshire club played the last 23 minutes of Saturday’s 19-18 loss without any fit interchanges after catastrophic misfortune for a second game running.

Matty English was stretchered off with concussion in the fourth minute and fellow prop Adam Walne joined him before the break along with second-row Ukuma Ta’ai.

Captain and scrum-half Aidan Sezer was then taken off as precaution approaching the hour mark as gutsy Huddersfield tried to claw their way back into the game.

“I think Matty and Walney with the week off should be fine for the next game,” said Woolford, with Giants not in action until facing Hull FC on August 30.

“Matty’s up and talking. It’s just a standard concussion. I think Seze just felt his hammy.

“As dire as the situation was with our numbers, we weren’t going to risk him doing something sinister and being out for six weeks so we got him off.

“Ukuma has an ankle issue and I’d have to assume he’ll be missing for some time.

“It’s disappointing. Two weeks ago we had no subs left with 13, 14 minutes to go (and let a 26-6 lead slip to lose 27-26 at Leeds Rhinos) and this week we had none with 23 to go.

“But we put ourselves in a position to win the game which was pleasing for me and after the adversity we saw against Leeds this was a giant step forward. Hopefully, we’ll have a bit of luck turn in our favour in the next couple of games.”