Luke Robinson delivers Huddersfield Giants verdict with key positive raised

Huddersfield Giants boss Luke Robinson was encouraged by the performances of his new recruits following their pre-season victory over York Knights.

The Giants defeated the Super League newcomers 22-4, with Chris Patolo, Asher O’Donnell and Mathieu Cozza all catching the eye.

Patolo, a recruit from Manly, has been making an impression throughout the off-season, and that transferred into performances on the pitch, with the forward providing threat through the middle of the field.

O’Donnell, who has signed from Brisbane Tigers, also caught the eye with his uncompromising carries, while Cozza, an addition from Wakefield, also impressed in various roles.

Starting on Patolo, Robinson told Love Rugby League: “He’s been poorly all week and hasn’t trained. He played a little less than we wanted him to, but we got a message from the doctor saying he was sweating profusely.

“I said to him at half-time he didn’t have to go back on but he said he wanted to get minutes under his belt, so went back out.

“Asher looked dangerous with ball in hand, he’s going to be a handful, and Cozza, he played that role of hooker and loose forward and looked really good in it.

“He’s a bit of an unsung hero. Cozza has played a part in Wakefield’s success. You can never replace Leroy Cudjoe but we’ve got an old-school playing loose with nice skill and he works really hard. We think he can be useful.”

Huddersfield were impressive in the first-half and held a 16-0 lead, with Robinson pleased with the efforts of his side.

“The lads have been itching to play,” Robinson said.

“You can feel it a little bit in training. We got what we wanted out of it, the players attacked the game in the right manner and in the first half we were really good.

“We made some changes in the second half and we made life hard for ourselves with penalty after penalty but in some ways I was pleased with it as it gave us an opportunity to defend.”