The Yorkshire Post's rugby league correspondent, James O'Brien, looks ahead to Round 18 of Super League and the games involving Huddersfield Giants v Salford Red Devils, Leeds Rhinos v Hull KR, Hull FC v Wigan Warriors and Castleford Tigers v Catalans Dragons
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00:00The sun is shining for Round 18 of Super League. It's a big weekend for some of our Yorkshire
00:12clubs. That probably doesn't apply to Huddersfield Giants. They've lost 9 of the last 10 games
00:18to leave themselves a long way off the play-off positions. They're in no danger of finishing
00:24the season with a dreaded wooden spoon. So all I'm playing for on the face of it is pride
00:28in the final 10 rounds. But there are players playing for their future at Huddersfield.
00:34There's a reset going on at the moment. A head coach Ian Watson left last week. Captain
00:38Luke Yates left early this week to join Warrington Wolves. So it is a bit of a transitional period
00:45for Huddersfield. You feel the players have to show something in these final 10 games
00:50if they're going to be on that journey beyond the end of the season. Interim coach Luke
00:55Robinson, he got a lifting performance last week at Leeds. But they really need results
01:00now and I know they've got a lot of injuries at the moment. But they do need to find some
01:04form from somewhere in the final 10 rounds to give themselves some hope going into next
01:09season, the next chance against Salford at home. Another Yorkshire club with an interim
01:15boss at the moment, that's Leeds Rhinos. They host Hull KR on Saturday afternoon, Brad
01:20Arthur's first game in charge in front of a crowd at hopefully a sunny Headingley. It
01:26should be a good afternoon down there. Hull KR's stronger position, but Leeds should fancy
01:31that. I'm sure the fans will with Brad Arthur, an accomplished NRL head coach with Parramatta
01:37Reels. He knows what he's talking about. He knows what he's doing. It's just whether he
01:41has enough time to get his message across to Leeds that they need to make up four points
01:46to the playoff positions. It's down to whether he's got enough time to improve their fortunes
01:51and improve Leeds' form to a point where they do knock one of those sides above them out of the
01:58playoff positions. And then Hull FC, again, another team with very little to play for
02:04in terms of the table. They are in danger of finishing bottom for the first time,
02:09which would be humiliating for them given London Broncos resources. They play Wigan Warriors at
02:15home to Hull. A bit of a thankless task for them, but they have improved performances recently.
02:24And they should fancy the chance to at least compete in there. They need to keep doing that
02:28until the end of the season to build something. They are doing a lot of good things recruitment
02:32wise for next year. So they have got hope beyond the end of the year, but they need to give the
02:37fans something to cheer. They haven't had a lot this season, only a couple of wins.
02:41But yeah, if they did manage to knock Wigan off at home, something they did last year,
02:46that would go a long way to cheering the fans up going into the final nine rounds.
02:50And then Castleford, who have got a good vibe about them at the moment. They play Catalan on
02:56Sunday afternoon, a rare Sunday afternoon game at Walden Road. They are doing great
03:02crickling cards, doing great things down there at the moment. He's getting a tune out of that squad
03:06that have come a long way since that brush with relegation last year. If they could knock
03:10Catalan off at home, they'd have a real good chance of finishing at least ninth,
03:15at Leapfrog in Huddersfield. And who knows, from there they could end up eighth, which would be
03:20an incredible achievement really, given where they were at the start of the season
03:23and last year as well. So yeah, a lot to keep an eye on across Super League this weekend.
03:36you