Huddersfield Giants want a top two finish insists head coach Ian Watson

Huddersfield Giants head coach Ian Watson says his side wants second spot in the Super League table following their 36-10 victory over Castleford.

The win took the Giants to within a point of second-placed Wigan, who face Toulouse at the DW Stadium on Friday.

Huddersfield ran in seven tries against Castleford to cement a play-off spot for the first time since 2015.

A top-two finish would guarantee a home semi-final, as well as a much needed week off at the end of a gruelling 27-match regular season.

“First up, you’re not playing St Helens away in the semi-finals, you’ve got a home tie and you get a week off,” Watson said.

“With the congestion of fixtures, that’s a big, big plus. I think it’s probably more important this year than any other year because of the tight games coming up.

“You’ve always got to aim higher, aim as big as you can and miss small has got to be the mentality.”

Race for play-offs

Castleford remain in fifth spot in the play-offs, but have opened an opportunity for Leeds to overtake them on the table if they can beat Warrington at Headingley Stadium.

“I thought we were second best tonight, we were beaten by the better side in many facets of the game,” said Castleford boss Lee Radford. 

“We had no middles unfortunately so we knew physically we were not going to impose ourselves on Huddersfield and we had to try and play some football but was difficult to play footy in those conditions.

“We threw Westy (Joe Westerman) up there and when you are putting a centre in there who can’t breathe because he’s never had to make three back-back-tackles in his career, it’s a difficult challenge.

“We’re patching up, e’re playing out of position and we’re scrapping. We’re having a crack and will continue to do that to the end of the season and fight as hard as we can to make that fifth or sixth spot.”

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