Youngsters step up to the plate for Giants

Huddersfield head coach Rick Stone says the club’s youngsters have acquitted themselves well over the past few weeks.

With numerous first teamers out injured Stone has given opportunities to younger players, with Matty English and Adam O’Brien both featuring in Super League games recently.

Sam Wood (above) has also been a regular in the Giants team and featured in last week’s victory over Leeds. Stone admitted he was pleased with Wood’s performance.

“He’s done okay – he’s really been playing the 5/8 role and Broughy (Danny Brough) plays on the ball pretty much for us most times anyway, so that’s the logic behind what we were looking to do last week,” Stone told the club’s official website.

“Sam is a young bloke – he’s got a fairly big responsibility if he does that and I think he’ll get better at that role, so he just needs a few more games and a few more sessions to cement his role and what we expect him to do.

“As a young player, ideally it helps to jump into a winning environment and drip feed to the young players where the environment is good and protect them a little bit.

“At some stages this year for us, we’ve been thrown to the wolves a little bit, but I think for the best part they’ve handled themselves pretty well, they’ve definitely tried hard and they haven’t let too many blokes down.

“I think in the main our young players have done that and I’m very proud of them for that fact and I’m pretty sure the evolution in their game has definitely taken a significant step forwards because of that.”