‘It’s a great feeling to be back’: Ethan Havard opens up on long road to recovery

The 23-year-old featured from the interchange bench for his first appearance of the season, having suffered a setback on his hamstring within 10 minutes of entering the field during last year’s Grand Final battle against Catalans Dragons.

Havard, a club academy product, has been working on his rehab ever since and admits to a long road back to full fitness to make his return.

“It’s a great feeling to be back,” the England international said.

“It’s been a long road to recovery and I’ve had to be pretty patient, but I’m pretty relieved to get out there and get through the game.

“Obviously it wasn’t the result we were all hoping for, but personally it was good to get back.

“I was pretty nervous before the game to be honest, more nervous than I’d usually be.

“But I just had to trust the work that I had done. It’s been a long run to get back but it felt good to get back out there with the team.

“I wanted to get on there and get my first carry, then I was in the game.”

It was otherwise a night to forget for the reigning Super League champions after being dominated by Willie Peters’ outfit, falling to a 26-10 defeat with a poor display at Craven Park.

Havard says the team will learn lessons from their second loss of the season, with the two sides set to meet again later in May during the Challenge Cup semi-finals.

“We’ll look at this one throughout the week. It hurts to come here and lose, it’s definitely something we have to learn from and we have them in a couple of weeks in the Challenge Cup,” Havard said.

“We’ve got Catalans next up, there’s a lot of work to do during the week to put some wrongs right.

“We’ve got an honest group, people know when they’re not at their best which is good, people don’t hide away from that. We’ll be ready to go again next week.”