The 45-year-old was attracting interest from the NRL but he has committed his future to the Giants, with the club announcing the news just minutes before their Magic Weekend clash with Salford Red Devils.

Huddersfield responded to the news with vigour, building up a 24-6 half-time lead before seeing off a second-half fightback by the Red Devils.

"I've spoken about building something at Huddersfield and I feel Huddersfield is the right club to be able to do that," said Watson after the 30-18 victory at St James' Park.

Ian Watson has committed his long-term future to Huddersfield Giants. (Picture: SWPix.com)

"Working with (managing director) Richard (Thewlis) has been really good and (owner) Ken (Davy) is great to talk to. He understands business, environments and how you build it.

"I've spoken about creating a legacy. We want to become the new Wigan of old or St Helens that are consistently competing for trophies.

"Everything is set up at the club to do that. We just need to get it right at first-team level and that will filter through to get the better level of younger kids so you can sustain what you're trying to build.

"We're having a great year this year but we are still building. We'll need to be better again next year and we should be.

Huddersfield Giants celebrate the win at St James' Park. (Picture: SWPix.com)

"We want to challenge the dominance of the league. People say they like that Wigan and Saints are always at the top end competing but I don't like that. I want a new team to come in there."

Watson had been linked with vacancies at Wests Tigers and Canterbury Bulldogs but he insisted he did not hold any formal talks.

"I didn't speak to any clubs," said Watson.

"I speak to people from the NRL quite a bit. I had some agents contact me and ask me whether I was interested in going over and that they wanted to represent me, but I didn't speak to any clubs on the back of that."

Jermaine McGillvary goes over for a try. (Picture: SWPix.com)

It was a professional performance by the Giants in blazing sunshine on Tyneside with Jermaine McGillvary scoring two of their five tries.

Watson felt it was the perfect response to two below-par performances.

"I thought we were really good," he said.

"We spoke this week about resilience in our processes and getting back to them because we definitely fell off them in the Hull KR and Castleford games. We were probably at our worst in the Castleford game and didn't react in the right ways.

"In this one, I thought we did everything we spoke about. We prepped really well and Theo coming back in massively helps.

"We lost the speed of the ruck a bit in the second half but I've got to give a big wrap to Ash Golding. When he came on with Joe Greenwood and Luke Yates, they really secured the ruck and there was no way through for them.

"We were always really confident we'd get the result but it was a tough, resilient performance."

Ian Watson reiterates Huddersfield Giants ambition after celebrating new deal with big win