Huddersfield Giants just getting started, insists coach Ian Watson

Huddersfield, who have not won the Challenge Cup since 1953, were less than four minutes away from victory in a thrilling final at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium when a try by Wigan Warriors winger Liam Marshall broke their hearts.

The 16-14 loss was Watson’s third in as many finals as a coach, after defeats while he was in charge of Salford Red Devils in the 2019 Grand Final and in the Challenge Cup at Wembley the following year.

Watson felt Giants were “the best team for large parts of the game” and insisted: “It is worse than the other times, because they deserved it.”

Giants travel to high-flying Catalans Dragons on Friday and Watson said: “It is going to affect them for a while and they are going to be a bit sore on the back end of it.

“But what we have got to make sure we do now is bounce back pretty quickly and show everybody what we are about as a club.

“We have got a couple of injuries, which won’t help, but this has got to be the start of something for us at Huddersfield, to build a platform for going forward.

“This was our first final and you could see the anticipation and nervousness before the game.

“But they have experienced it now and, hopefully, they can use that going forward.”

Watson, who refused to blame Tui Lolohea for his four missed kicks at goal, stressed: “It (the defeat) will hurt me, I don’t like losing.

“I want to be a winner, but this won’t deter me from what we are doing, as it wouldn’t if we’d won. I still want to win the Grand Final at the back end of the year and that’s becoming, hopefully, our standard as a group now.

“It’s bitterly disappointing, but I am proud of the group and now we’ve got to kick on again, get over this and look to the Grand Final.”