Huddersfield Giants v Wigan Warriors: Ian Watson not concerned about home record as he pushes aside Challenge Cup thoughts

Eventual champions St Helens were the only side to leave the John Smith's Stadium with two points – and even then they were made to work by an understrength Huddersfield over Easter.

Home form tends to be a good indicator of where a team will finish, with the last three League Leaders' Shield winners losing a combined five games between them in front of their own fans.

In that sense, the Giants have work to do after suffering three straight Super League defeats on home soil to continue a trend.

Huddersfield lost more games than they won at the John Smith's Stadium in 2023 but their home record is not a concern for Ian Watson – yet.

"If you look at it like that then it can be," said Watson, whose side have won five of their seven away fixtures.

"What we've got to do is take each game as it comes. Our away form has been really good at the start of the year. We had a real tough layout of fixtures and have come through that.

"What we've got to do now is make that even more valuable by winning our home games. That's one thing we've not done this year in the league.

"It's strange after a couple of years ago when we only lost one at home. Our mentality is we want to win every game we play but your home form is normally something that you can bank on by getting your crowd behind you.

"We need to rectify it – but it's not a concern at this moment in time."

The Giants are in danger of undoing their good work on the road as next week's Challenge Cup semi-final date with Warrington Wolves comes into view.

Watson has stressed that returning to winning ways against Wigan Warriors is the priority as Huddersfield push any cup thoughts to the back of their minds.

"We've been really good and focused on Wigan," he said. "There hasn't been much talk about it at the moment.

"You know Wigan are going to be fired up and will come with a 'war of attrition' mentality. That's how they play the game and then they've got the quality of people like Jai Field and Bevan French on the back of that.

"It's another good game for us before we go into that semi-final. We're pretty pleased with how we've been playing and what we've been doing, apart from certain little areas which we need to tidy up.

"We've been on a tough run but the boys have handled it really well and the full squad has fronted up and competed hard. I feel we're in a good spot but we'll know more about where we are after this weekend."

The Giants head into the clash with the defending champions four points off the pace in the race for the play-offs.

Watson, who last week pointed to the disparity between fixture lists due to the loop games, is relaxed about Huddersfield's position in the table as sides continue to take points off one another.

"The last couple of years have been really competitive," he said.

"If you look over the last three or maybe even four years, fourth down to ninth has been really tight and the play-off picture has come down to the last one or two weekends.

"People spoke about our season last year but even then when we didn't have a great season and had a lot of injuries, we were still in with a chance of being in the play-offs."

Adam Swift – Super League's top tryscorer in the opening 10 rounds – misses his first game for the club this week but Watson is optimistic the winger will shake off his groin issue to line up against Warrington.

Watson's casualty list is shrinking, with Leroy Cudjoe and Sam Hewitt set to return and Andre Savelio poised to make his long-awaited debut on Saturday after overcoming a head injury.

"It's awesome to get Sam and Andre back," said Watson.

"We've been a little bit short the last few weeks. I think we had eight or nine players out so getting a few players back gives us a few more options.

"We know where Andre is at in terms of his physical condition. He probably wouldn't be ready to do 80 minutes. We've got to build that into him because he hasn't played since last year.

"Adam got through last week’s game fine but it obviously stiffens up once you stop playing and it still felt tight during recovery. It’s more precautionary than anything else."