Huddersfield Giants stars given open auditions against Leeds Rhinos

With Ashton Golding sidelined until May due to a shoulder injury, Ian Watson will cast his eye over a number of candidates when they face Leeds Rhinos in their pre-season friendly.

Former Widnes Vikings and London Broncos player Ashall-Bott, 23, is up first and Watson confirmed: “He’ll start.

“But we’ve young Aidan McGowan as well, who has his birthday this weekend, too, so that will be a little surprise for him.

“We ran Lee Gaskell there a little bit against Halifax (in opposed training session last week) and we might have a look at that. But that was mainly to get some game-time in his legs. We’ll see how we go.

“We’re going to run with a squad of 23 with a couple of youngsters who we’ll hopefully give some game-time to towards the end of the game as reward for how well they have been going in training.”

Watson said all the club’s new signings will feature including the likes of Josh Jones, Joe Greenwood, Jack Cogger and Ricky Leutele.

“I’m looking forward to seeing them all combine at some point,” he said.

“It’s exciting to see how they gel with the rest of the boys in a game situation.”

It is Huddersfield’s only friendly before they face Hull FC in their Super League opener two weeks later.

Watson said: “Training has been great but these last two weeks people are aware it’s game time coming up.

“It’s turned up a notch this week with us going in against Leeds and it’s up to us to manage the expectations.”

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