Super League preview: Huddersfield Giants v Warrington Wolves
Huddersfield Giants welcome back Shaun Lunt from injury ahead of Sunday's Super League clash against Warrington Wolves.
Last Updated: 30/03/14 2:40pm
Former Leeds Rhinos loanee has not played for the Giants since their opening-night victory at Wigan, meaning he did not feature in last Saturday's surprise loss to Catalan Dragons.
Huddersfield's loss in the south of France means Paul Anderson's men, who won the League Leaders' Shield last season, are down in fifth place six games into the new season.
Anderson has Michael Lawrence back from suspension and he is joined alongside Jake Connor and Lunt in the 19-man squad. Joe Wardle, Aaron Murphy and Jacob Fairbank all miss out.
Wardle damaged ankle ligaments in Perpignan, however Anderson feels he has the squad depth to copy with the centre's absence.
"Losing Joe for three to four weeks with his ankle injury is obviously far from ideal," said Anderson told the Huddersfield Examiner. "But we're not exactly short of options.
Options
"We've got the option of putting Michael Lawrence back in at centre after serving his one-match ban or switching Brett Ferres to the three-quarters and giving Ukuma Ta'ai a start in the back row."
Warrington Wolves head coach Tony Smith has named an unchanged 19-man squad from that which suffered a 12-4 home defeat to Wigan Warriors last week.
Smith could bring Matty Russell in at full-back for the trip to West Yorkshire allowing previous incumbent Stefan Ratchford to join either Gareth O'Brien or Richie Myler in the halves.
The Wolves were slow out of the blocks against Wigan last time out and England international Ben Westwood is hoping his team-mates are alive from the off on Sunday.
"In the first 15 to 20 minutes against Wigan they got on top of us a little bit and then we decided to have a go," Westwood told the Warrington Guardian.
"Question is, why is it taking 20 minutes or why is it taking something to happen that gets 'our mad up' before we start. Let's start off early, get stuck into them, rip in, and it might work for us."
Huddersfield Giants: Grix, McGillvary, Cudjoe, Brough, Robinson, Crabtree, Lunt, Kopczak, Ferres, Chan, Bailey, Lawrence, Faiumu, Ta'ai, Wood, Broughton, Kaufusi, Johnson, Connor.
Warrington Wolves: Asotasi, Atkins, Bridge, B. Evans, R. Evans, Grix, Higham, Hill, Laithwaite, J. Monaghan, M. Monaghan, Myler, O'Brien, Ormsby, Ratchford, Riley, Russell, Waterhouse.