After a winless Easter, Huddersfield faced a break in preparation when a flu virus swept through the camp.
But Watson managed to get a side out on the field and his players produced a committed performance to claim a 14-12 victory that moves the Giants to fourth place in the Super League.
“It’s a big, big win for us,” Watson said.
“It’s a great win, especially with some of the things that have happened not only this week, but also today in terms of some of the staff walking out with the flu at camp.
“Even more so on the back of last week when we felt like we didn’t do ourselves justice and let ourselves down with the way we played.
“This week we were just the opposite. We were outstanding and we showed a lot of hunger.”
Huddersfield lost Jermaine McGillvary hours before kick-off, while Joe Greenwood and Oliver Russell challenged the bug to play significant roles in the win at Belle Vue.
After the game, Watson revealed the extent of the problems in camp in the buildup.
“I left my house at 4 pm and got a call saying five players were in trouble,” Watson said.
“Two of them (McGillvary and Greenwood) weren’t expected to make it past the warm-up and when we got to the practice area, Jez was in no shape.
“We didn’t want him to get on the bus because he was struggling and we didn’t want to knock down more people.
“It’s been chaotic and the guys have shown a lot of character today.”
The form of the win gives the Giants a boost ahead of their Elland Road date with Hull KR.
Watson believes a similar performance could be good enough to book a place in the Challenge Cup final.
“In terms of effort and energy, he’s up there,” he said.
“We’ll see if it’s good enough. Hopefully, we’ll put on a performance like that next week.”
“Today we showed hunger and desire as a team and a never say die attitude.”
While Huddersfield ended their winless streak, Wakefield was left contemplating a fifth straight loss.
Trinity head coach Willie Poching was unable to explain his team’s performance after going into halftime with a 12-4 lead.
“We thought we were in a pretty dominant position at half time, not only through the score but also through the performance,” he said.
“We just didn’t get going in the second half. We got in a position to really kick and I’m disappointed we couldn’t.”
“The second half performance just wasn’t good enough.”
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Source: www.yorkshirepost.co.uk
This notice was published: 2022-04-28 22:06:29
