Huddersfield belief growing under Simon Woolford, insists Ryan Hinchcliffe
Photo courtesy of Richard Long
Huddersfield star Ryan Hinchcliffe insists the team are slowly improving under new head coach Simon Woolford.
The Giants have won their four games in all competitions, with their victories coming against Widnes Vikings, Salford Red Devils and two against Wakefield Trinity.
Huddersfield’s recent good form sees them in eighth place in the Super League table, one point above Salford.
And Hinchcliffe says Woolford has had a big impact on the team.
He told giantsrl.com: “He’s been good, he’s been here for a week now and has been able to slowly introduce a few new things which has been good.
“Even in the weeks that he wasn’t here, Chris Thorman and Mark Andrews have been implementing a few of the things that he wanted, so it’s been pretty seamless really.
“We’ve had a lot more focus on our defence and technically with our attack we’ve changed a few things positionally with some subtleties across the board. Everyone has bought into that and we just need to continue and keep improving those things.
“What we have is a bit more consistency in our game. We’ve gone from averaging around 30 points against to probably half of that in the past month, so that’s something we need to continue to improve against a good Catalans side.
“We’re slowly improving, with that grows belief, confidence and all of that points in the right direction but we still need to go out and get the job done.”
Hinchciffe was only a youngster at Canberra Raiders when Woolford was a player there in 2006, but he did play against him a couple of times when he was at Melbourne Storm and Woolford was at St George Illawarra Dragons later on.
And Hinchcliffe is a keen admirer of Woolford’s philosophy.
He added: “I played against Simon a few times. He was a grubby little hooker, he was a tough and creative number nine.
“He was captain at Canberra Raiders whilst I was there, so I’ve known him for a while. He was a real competitor, a winner and a good man too, he’ll be a good addition to our club.
“I trained with him a fair bit whilst I was learning my trade as a hooker, it’s funny now that we end up back together.”
Huddersfield will be looking to continue their form when they take on Catalans Dragons in the quarter-finals of the Challenge Cup at the John Smith’s Stadium on Thursday, 7:35pm kick-off.