It's 12 days till Super League. Wearing the number 12 shirt this year is Huddersfield's own Michael Lawrence. Yet another academy graduate who's gone on to star in the first team, Michael - or Bruno, as he's also known - has nabbed just under 49 tries in over 200 Huddersfield appearances, playing both in the backs and the forwards. After his best season to date in 2016, Michael was ruled out through injury for most of the 2017 season, but after easing his way back into the squad in the Super 8s, we had a chat with him about his ambitions for the 2018 season
Hi Bruno. The team's 2 months into preseason now, how have things been going?
Preseasons gone really well so far, all the boys are training hard and looking forward to a good 2018
Last year was an inconsistent one for the Giants, what are the club hoping to achieve in 2018?
We are definitely looking to improve on our 2017 performance. Every team wants to win silverware and we are no different. But there's a process and we want to play as well as possible and hopefully the table will take care of itself.
2016 was arguably your best year to date, but 2017 saw you miss a large stretch of the season to injury. What are your personal goals for 2018?
Yes I definitely felt I hit some career-best form since my move into the forwards in 2016, last year was very disappointing for myself being out for so long with injury. But this year so far I've been focused on having a really good preseason and getting fully fit for the year ahead. My aims are to stay healthy and get back to the 2016 form I showed that year, personally.
The conditioning team was going through a few changes this time last year, and the club found themselves dealing with injuries throughout 2017. Do you think having a more settled backroom team will help the club going forward?
A lot of luck goes into avoiding a lot of injuries, we had a great physio and conditioning team last year and the new team this year are doing a great job. I think if we have a bit of luck and can keep our best team on the park all season, it will go a long way towards us having a successful season
If you had to sum up your expectations for our 2018 season in 3 words, what would you say?
Win a trophy!