Lawrence targeting top four intensity with Huddersfield

Correspondent

Huddersfield utility forward Michael Lawrence has insisted that his team are aiming for top spot in this season’s Super League.

Winning the League Leaders Shield has become more important this year, simply due to the advantage that it hands teams going into the Super Eights.

With points being carried into the Super Eights from the regular season, every game is now more important, and Lawrence feels that raising the intensity levels each week can only help the Giants.

“We’ve set ourselves a few goals,” he said.

“Top four hopefully, is where we want to be, if we want to be in with a shot of making the Grand Final.

“The way the new system is, with the points carrying over, you can’t really finish in seventh and be six points behind the top four, because it’s going to affect you when it comes to the Super Eights.

“So we’re aiming for the top four, and hopefully we’ll get in one of those semi-finals, and have a crack at Old Trafford again.

“With it being cut after 23 rounds, it makes these first few games even more important.

“We’ll take it week by week, and take each game as it comes.

“When it’s got to play-off time, we haven’t played too well when it’s gone up a notch.

“Hopefully if the intensity is there all year, and we’re playing at that intensity, it should benefit in the play-offs.”

Lawrence is hopeful that the Giants can progress again this season, after stuttering a little in 2014.

“We haven’t been that far away in the last few years, just one win, two points off being top of the league last year, and we didn’t think that we had had the best year,” he added.

“We thought we could have played a lot better, and we don’t want to go backwards. We want to move forward every year.

“The aim is to do better than we did last year.”