Stone never doubted top eight finish

Rick Stone says he never lost belief that Huddersfield would qualify for the Super 8s after seeing his side secure their spot with victory over Leigh on Friday.

Lee Gaskell scored twice as the Giants eased to a 26-4 success and cement their place in the top eight.

The result was Huddersfield’s fifth win in their last seven games and Stone insists he was always confident his team could overcome their poor start to the season.

“We were a bit banged up with injuries and I felt once we got those players back it would help us,” he said.

“It started probably at the Magic Weekend with a bit of a rusty win over Catalans. We began to respect the process a bit more – the boys have bought into that and the last couple of months have been good.”

The Giants, who had to battle against possible relegation through the Qualifiers last year, never looked in danger against the struggling Centurions to leave Stone looking forward to the rest of the campaign.

“It was a tough, physical game and we showed some good resilience,” he added.

“We had most of the play in the first half, while in the second we had to defend a little more and found ourselves coming more off our own line.

“Our kicking wasn’t at its best and we probably needed a bit more patience but we decided we wanted to play tough, defend well and we did that okay.

“Our goal is now to win as many games as we can and we have a few boys to come back from injury.”