Huddersfield and Wakefield are both on the hunt for a first win

Friday’s clash at the Be Well Support stadium brings together two teams that are looking for their first win of the season.

The home side Wakefield Trinity suffered back to back defeats against the Catalan Dragons and the Wigan Warriors while the Huddersfield Giants were beaten by Warrington in their delayed season opener.

Many tipped Wakefield as favourites for relegation in 2023 and so far they have not done anything to prove their doubters wrong, After a competitive first round loss to Catalan they were put to the sword last week in a heavy 60-0 loss to the Warriors.

The Giants sat out round one as they were supposed to face St Helens, who were successfully competing in the World Club Challenge, therefore it is understandable they were a step behind Warrington in their 26-16 defeat. 

It was interesting to see Will Pryce start in the halves for the Giants alongside Theo Fages instead of Olly Russell who had an excellent 2022. The halfback, who is Newcastle Knights bound in 2024, showed why Ian Watson had faith in him by scoring Huddersfield’s second try and kicking two out of three conversions. 

Both teams have named similar squads to round two. Huddersfield have made one change with new signing Kevin Naiqama missing out with a slight strain while Tom Lineham and Kelepi Tanginoa have been left out of Wakefield’s squad.

Looking ahead to the game, all eyes will be on the playing surface. After round one Steve McNamara complained about his players “having no skin left on their legs” after playing on the pitch and the game itself was in doubt until the new grass-hybrid surface passed a pitch inspection on Wednesday.

Speaking ahead of the fixture, Huddersfield head coach Ian Watson feels that his side will be better prepared to deal with the challenges of playing on this type of pitch.

He said: “We train on those kind of surfaces anyway. We’ve got a really good surface that we train on in Siddal which is very similar to the one that Wakefield’s got. Hopefully the experience of that will help us. But we’ve got a really good medical team and things in place to deal with things if anything arises from that game.”

Focusing on the action on the pitch, rather than the pitch itself, it is hard to look past Ian Watson and the Huddersfield Giants bringing up their first win of the season. 

Even in defeat against a red hot Warrington side the giants showed glimpses of the qualities which meant they finished in third place last season. They looked dangerous on the edge at times throughout the game and for Wakefield this is where they struggled against the Warriors.

Liam Marshall crossed for four tries last week and the Huddersfield wingers will be hoping that they will be afforded the same amount of space.

The giants won both games between the two sides last season by just two points, including a golden point win thanks to a Will Pryce penalty on the last day of the regular season. In my opinion Huddersfield should win much more comfortably this time round. 

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