St Helens v Huddersfield Giants: Thorman deserving of upturn in Giants yield

Huddersfield's Kruise Leeming is taken down by Widnes's Chris Houston.
(Picture: Bruce Rollinson) — Huddersfield's Kruise Leeming is taken down by Widnes's Chris Houston. (Picture: Bruce Rollinson)

It is four games since the assistant stepped up following Rick Stone’s sacking but he is still awaiting a first win.

Pressure is mounting at Huddersfield with a battle in the Qualifiers looking increasingly likely.

The task does not get any easier with a trip to Super League leaders St Helens this evening.

But Leeming, 22, has belief and he said: “Chris has coached me since I was a young lad so he’s always kind of been my head coach.

“He’s helped me massively through my academy days and he’s always been around when I’ve been in the first-team so it hasn’t really been a massive change for me. You can tell that he really cares about the club and you can trust him.

“I think for a player to be able to trust the coach, no matter what the game-plan is, if you trust them then you can normally get the job done.

“Hopefully we can start getting the results that Chris deserves because he puts a lot of time and effort into everything that he does and we need to start getting the results for him.

“We need to show him a bit back of what he puts into us, and if we can do that then hopefully we can get a lot of wins.”

After missing three games due to injury, Leeming returned in Sunday’s disappointing home loss to Salford Red Devils.

With scrum-half Danny Brough starting a three-game ban tonight after being red-carded in that game for dissent, the hooker’s creative influence will be all the more crucial.

Leeming feels tonight’s game will offer an insight into how the Giants are developing.

“It’s tough to get the confidence and the combinations when your number nine, six, seven and  one are changing every week,” he said.

“And I don’t think there’s been three weeks on the bounce when we’ve had the same players in those positions.

“That’s tough but we’re starting to learn how to play with each other and we’re getting there.

“It’s always good going against the top teams because you get to see where you are at and I’m looking forward to facing Saints.”