Ian Watson slams Huddersfield Giants players with Challenge Cup axing considered

Ian Watson ripped into his Huddersfield Giants side after an alarming collapse at the hands of Wigan Warriors. The Giants were thrashed 48-6 by the Super League champions, their third defeat on the bounce.

Their latest sequence of results has put a dampener on a promising run of five straight victories beforehand and ensures they go into next week's Challenge Cup semi-final against Warrington Wolves on the back of a poor run of four.

Huddersfield conceded 36 points in the second half, a capitulation that left Watson furious and pondering whether big changes were needed ahead of the semi-final showdown next weekend.

“The first half there was nothing in it," Watson said. "But that second half. Wow. I didn’t see that one coming. We just capitulated. You can talk about individual brilliance with Jai [Field] and Bevan [French].

"But we just made errors and didn’t have resilience to defend our try line. It makes you rethink everything and want to go back to the drawing board and think about whether you're picking the right team or not. We've had three losses on the bounce going into a semi-final. A lot of it is due to our own downfall. It's a massive wake-up call."

He added: “That’s our worst performance, we’ve had three losses on the bounce going into a semi-final. They know it is not good enough, our standards are usually pretty gritty as a team and we didn’t see that in the second half. A massive wake-up call here.“

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