Star signing McQueen set to make Huddersfield Giants debut against Leeds Rhinos

The veteran former England second-rower has joined Giants after being released by West Tigers and Huddersfield coach Simon Woolford said: “Chris has been a good player for a long time.

“He has played at a high level, won a Grand Final and his experience will be invaluable for us.

“He’s a real pro, he’ll be another guy the younger kids can learn from and more importantly we feel he is still capable of playing some really good rugby league.

“The next couple of months we’ll need as many as possible. We’re fortunate to get Chris and he’ll be thrown straight in.”

Woolford is confident his new man is ready for action.

“He flew in last Friday and I asked if he could come straight in [to face St Helens], but he needed Covid testing so he couldn’t,” he said.

“He hasn’t played a lot of footy, but played three weeks ago for the Tigers.”

Giants, including young two debutants, were crushed 54-6 by Saints last week, but will field a much stronger 17 against Leeds.

“Getting half a dozen players back is important,” Woolford admitted.

“Seze [Aidan Sezer] is back and you see the difference he makes to our team just at training in our ball work.

“Our practice has gone up a couple of notches. We have got to the stage now where we need to win and we’re looking to get our season back on track.”

Giants led 26-6 with 13 minutes remaining against Rhinos at Headingley last month, but Leeds hit back to win the game in extra-time.

Woolford recalled: “A lot of things worked for us against Leeds for 67 minutes so we don’t need to change a lot.”

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