“Our mentality changed” – Ian Watson unhappy with second half performance

Huddersfield Head Coach Ian Watson was unhappy with his side’s second half performance during their 38-36 win over Warrington.

The Giants had led 32-10 at the break, and then 38-22 with 15 minutes to go. But a late double from Matt Dufty and another from George Williams meant the scoreline was a lot closer than what it may have been after half-time.

Watson said his players must improve going into the play-offs, otherwise they would get turned over.

He told the post-match press conference: “Yeah, two different halves completely. The first half was outstanding, it was awesome. We attacked the game the right way.

“Second half, our mentality changed. We were very loose with the ball and I think we started playing more individually more so than anything else.

“It’s a lesson for us. There’s a lot of lessons this year, obviously, we’ve got quite a lot of young lads within the group as well and they’re probably not played at the level of  play-off football.

“But they’ve got to learn lessons from these. If you go into a play-off game and play like that for 40 minutes, you might get yourself a good start, but you’re going to get turned over on the back of it if you turn up in the second half like that.”

Watson wants a more ruthless attitude

The Huddersfield Head Coach also added that he wants his side to be more ruthless if they are going to be a threat in the play-offs.

Watson added: “I wouldn’t say from everybody, but I’d say there’s probably individuals that probably thought  we’ve done the job and they were happy with that.

“As a club going forward as a team going forward, we can’t be happy with that.

“We’ve got to become a ruthless team where that goes. It either finishes 32-10, or we go on to win that game by a big score and they stay at 10.

“That’s the kind of ruthless attitude that we’ve got to get within the team and within the Club.”

Huddersfield 38-36 Warrington: Giants hold off Wire comeback