THINGS must be tense ahead of Huddersfield’s game at Warrington - Chris Hill’s weekly coffee stop with Stefan Ratchford got ditched.
England prop Hill played almost 300 games for the Wolves before switching to Giants ahead of last season. He is relishing his latest return to Halliwell Jones Stadium on Saturday even though the West Yorkshire club has won just once in six outings. Hill, 35, said: “I love going back. It’s a club I hold dear to my heart.
“I had the best 10 years of my life there. I still know some of the players and staff there but across that white line it doesn’t matter. We need those two points. That’s what we’re going for. I do usually meet Stef for a brew during the week but he’s decided to keep away from me this week. He’ll be chirping at me from centre on Saturday, though. They’ve had a couple of losses so they’ll be looking to bounce back, too.”
Warrington, captained by 34-year-old Ratchford, remain joint-top. But they have lost pole position to Catalans after back-to-back defeats against Leigh and Hull FC. Hill, though, is more concerned with Huddersfield’s alarming lack of form. They have slumped to the wrong end of the table and been knocked out of the Challenge Cup.
Sunday’s 48-6 hammering by St Helens at Magic Weekend was their heaviest defeat of the season. Hill conceded: “It has been tough. There's no lack of effort from the boys. It’s just certain areas we’re not executing well enough in with the ball and defensively as well. Our detail is poor on both sides of the ball. It’s disappointing.
"The effort is there but you have got to have effort and be clinical. We saw what Saints did; they took about 80 or 90 percent of their chances and we’re not doing that at the minute. We have to fix some areas up.”
Huddersfield boss Ian Watson hopes the Saints debacle will act as a kick up the backside for his under-performing star-studded side. But Hill, who recently signed a new two-year deal with Giants, insisted: “We’ve had a kick up the backside for a few weeks now. We pulled a performance out - or 60 minutes - to win against Castleford. But you can’t do that in Super League anymore. We’ve got to be 80 minutes like at the beginning of the year.
“We were doing 75 minutes and got pipped against Wigan and Saints. And we were in a game against Warrington last time out (before losing 26-16). That’s the level we need to be playing at. There’s no easy games, especially going to the Halliwell Jones after Warrington have lost two games.
“It’s all about us this week, concentrating on us. That's the beauty of rugby league; there’s always the week after. We have got to take this as a new week and we’re ready for the challenge.”
Warrington have their own issues after seeing controversial Australia forward Josh McGuire banned for 12 games for using unacceptable language surrounding disability in an exchange with Leigh winger Josh Charnley. They have also lost Great Britain prop Joe Philbin and No7 Josh Drinkwater to injury. In contrast, Huddersfield welcome back their scrum-half Olly Russell after a hamstring issue sidelined him for two months.
And Hill says they will aim to get back to basics. He said: "Sometimes less is more. When you lose you sometimes over analyse. You have to concentrate on yourself and keep the mood in the camp up. But we are only halfway through the season. It’s not dead and buried. We can’t think that. The mood’s been good this week and we’re ready to go.”
