Huddersfield Giants v Catalans Dragons – Michael Lawrence out to mark landmark game with victory

The Jamaica international is set to make his 300th career appearance when Ian Watson’s side take on Catalans Dragons and the West Yorkshire club do like to mark such milestones.

“Sometimes they stitch it into the shirt – but it tends to be down to our kitman Tully (Andy Toulcher) and if he’s remembered or not!” joked Lawrence, who debuted for hometown Huddersfield in 2007.

“He’s a bit of a character – a legend – and the boys love him but I’m not sure if he’s been tipped up or not so we’ll see.

“I only found out myself this morning. Watto mentioned it in the video.

“It’s another really proud achievement. It feels like the games are just flying by now. Hopefully we can get a win to celebrate that milestone.”

Paying tribute to such feats has become increasingly important for Giants.

Lawrence, whose games have all come in Huddersfield colours apart from one appearance each for England Knights and Jamaica, said: “Over the last two or three years we’ve made the decision to mark occasions like this.

“Before we didn’t use to make a big thing of things like that but I think it is very important and the coaches do, too.

“We’ve started to acknowledge people’s milestones now – debuts, games at the club, career matches – as they are special moments in people’s careers.”

Lawrence should have reached 300 on Sunday when Huddersfield opened their season with a 22-10 loss to Hull FC but a slight injury meant he was not risked.

Captain and scrum-half Aidan Sezer, though, is battling to be fit in time having also missed last week.

“Seze is a big influence but we have plenty of good half-backs that can do the job like Lee Gaskell and Jack Cogger if needed,” said Lawrence.

“We’ve all got confidence in those boys to perform.

“ Catalans are a tough side, they are very big through the middle and if you let them they can score points.

“They have dangerous players like Sam Tomkins and James Maloney and our defence has to be right against those boys.

“It was disappointing last week as we didn’t stick to our gameplan but we’ve had some good learning points and looked to fix some things up for this.”

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