Jim Lenihan expressed pride in his Huddersfield Giants side despite the club seeing their four-game winning streak come to an end with today’s loss to Warrington Wolves.
Wire won 34-24 but Huddersfield scored four second-half tries to give themselves some hope, though they never actually came within 10 points of the comeback victory.
Despite that, Lenihan was left asking a couple of ‘what if’ questions, particularly around tries conceded on the fifth tackle when assessing where the game didn’t quite go right for his side.
He told Sky Sports: “I think the start of the game, we had it exactly where we wanted it to be, and then we sort of had a bit of possession go against us with some penalties and six agains.
“Some of the tries were on fifth and last, so if we save a couple of those today then I think the outcome’s very different again, so we’re certainly on the improvement part of our journey.
“We’re a club that’s looking to get better with the way we compete and the way we perform, and certainly it’s a part of our journey, what happened today.”
Huddersfield Giants praised for effort areas despite defeat
Lenihan, despite clearly being proud of his side, would also admit that it was his team’s worst performance in recent weeks, though he couldn’t be too dismayed.
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He said: “I thought the guys were pretty good today in their effort but we probably played our worst game of the last two or three weeks, and the effort just to keep putting in and keep trying, even though things were going against us, was really pleasing.
“I think there was a part in the game where we probably had an opportunity to throw the towel in and let go, but I really loved how we fought right through the end and then nearly made a game of it.”
The Huddersfield of old likely would have ‘thrown in the towel’ but this new Giants side are built of sterner stuff, with Lenihan admitting: “We just really want to take pride in who we are as a football team and as people, and it’s really important to us to be seeing that we are trying all the time.
“Effort areas are massive to us, and I’ve said it before, they’re invisible parts of football where we’re working hard on the inside, working hard at getting back into the line, all the little parts that no one gets credit for – we’re making a real big deal about that.
“Like I said, over the last three or four weeks, we’ve probably been playing okay and we play obviously, a high opposition today, a better class of team, and for us to sort of stick it out with them for a big part was a tick in our box but we’re a little bit disappointed that we had some soft tries.
That effort-focused performance remained the key theme of his post-match interview as he looked ahead to the final three games of the season, stating: “I think it’s very important, not just the way we play football, but the sort of people we bring into our club and the types of characters that they are.
“We want people who will just fight for us. It’s just a non-stop fight.”
