Huddersfield Giants forward Chris Hill deserves England recall believes Ian Watson

The Giants are third in Super League and on Saturday reached their first Challenge Cup semi-final for 10 years thanks to a victory over Hull FC at the John Smith’s Stadium.

The 34-year-old Hill is enjoying a resurgence following his close-season move from Warrington and Watson says former England forwards Josh Jones and Joe Greenwood are also playing well enough to be contention for the end-of-season World Cup.

“Shaun says he’s going to be picking on form and, if he’s picking on form, then at the moment you’d be looking at Chris Hill and also Joe Greenwood is doing phenomenally well,” said Watson.

“We’ve got some good British players here. Josh Jones has been very solid again today. If Shaun’s watching, you would think there will be players he’d be keeping an eye on from Huddersfield.”

Tonga international Tui Lolohea was named man of the match after scoring a try and kicking six goals from as many attempts as the Giants joined Hull KR, St Helens and Wigan in the line-up for the semi-finals on May 7.

It is 69 years since Huddersfield last won the competition and Watson says it would be a fitting reward for owner Ken Davy if they could end that wait this year.

“It would be awesome for him but first we’ve got get back on the horse in Super League and, when the semi-final comes around, we’ll focus on that,” he said.

“I’m just glad to be in the semi-finals. This is where we want the club to get to and to do that you have to have the right people.

“Theo Fages and Chris Hill coming here have brought the right mentality to the club to make us better in these big games. It’s that little bit of experience that our young lads need.”

The Giants were always ahead from the moment centre Ricky Leutele scored the opening try in the seventh minute but Hull scored tries through Joe Lovodua and Andre Savelio to keep them in the tie. Watson added: “I thought we played really well.

“We had a loss to them a couple of weeks ago when we felt contributed to that defeat. We wanted to rectify that and I thought our forward pack did an outstanding job.”

Hull coach Brett Hodgson could not hide his disappointment and admits the result was poor preparation for the Good Friday derby at Hull KR. He reflected: “It’s disappointing, there were too many players not performing at their best.

“I thought Huddersfield were very good and did exactly what we knew they would do, compete and win the game based on effort.

“We weren’t prepared to do the same. I think we just wanted to turn up and win it easily rather than ripping in and doing what has got us to this position, which is hard work.

“In the last part of the first half it felt we were chasing the game instead of staying in the arm-wrestle.

“We have to learn in these big games that you have to be clinical and do the hard work, not take shortcuts. We’re all hurting, we were not good enough to progress. We have to lick our wounds pretty quickly.”

Huddersfield: Lolohea, Golding, Cudjoe, Leutele, I. Senior, Cogger, Fages, Hill, Levi, Wilson, Jones, McQueen, Yates. Subs: Greenwood, Ikahihifo, Lawrence, English.

Hull: Connor, Swift, Vulikijapani, Griffin, McIntosh, Lovodua, Gale, Sao, Houghton, Satae, Savelio, Ma’u, Brown. Subs: Evans, Fash, Johnstone, Reynolds.

Referee: Liam Moore