Focus for Field is finding a way forward to a fantastic future
The departure of longstanding director of rugby Gareth Lewis and the loss of key players has presented Huddersfield with a challenging first half of the season.
However, head coach Rob Anderson remains optimistic and believes his side can initiate a turnaround and remain in National 2 North.
Huddersfield won nine of their 14 games in last season's run-in, but this momentum was halted by the departure of crucial players and it proved difficult for new signings to adapt to the standard of National 2 North.
Anderson said: “This summer we lost our captain Lewis Bradley, fly- -half Will Milner and Eddie Brown who was a key player in the pack.
“We lost some core players so we had to recruit, and the players we recruited have been great additions to the squad, but we all recognise it's a big step up from the league below, and it's taken some adjustment from them.
“We were slow off the mark adapting to the new tackle height law, we tried through pre-season to adjust. Given our location and player group, we have a lot of ex-rugby league converts and making those adjustments in tackle height has been tougher for them when they're used to running that league style defence.”
Anderson has seen promising signs from his side in recent games and is optimistic they can turn the corner.
He said: “The desire is to turn the corner resultswise, and what we showed against Lymm away and Billingham at home is that we absolutely are capable of winning games in this league.
“As a club our ambition is to stay up, and the starting vision is these teams are beatable so let's go out and get after them. We have nothing to lose and that makes us dangerous. We have to get the defence sorted – that's an accountability that all the coaching team share.
“We're yet to beat Leeds but there are opportunities there and we think we can beat them, it's putting that performance out on the field that we practice.
“We're not too worried about what they bring as they're known quantities, it's making sure that we deliver. You've got to love defending and turn defensive opportunities into attack, if that lands and we put that together there's no reason those teams can't be beaten.”
Anderson believes Huddersfield have huge potential with a thriving junior set up. He added: “The youth section is healthy and the coaches in the youth section are doing an amazing job and we've had Yorkshire Cup victories in the last couple of years and great players have come through to the first-team already such as Ethan Myers.
“Andy Rollins, one of our props, comes all the way from Darlington to play every week, which is a hell of a commitment but says quite a bit about Huddersfield as a club that he wants to do that, there's a lot of potential there.”
