Huddersfield Giants boss responds to Ricky Leutele links

After Huddersfield Giants were linked with their former centre Ricky Leutele, the club’s interim head coach Luke Robinson has had his say on the prospects of re-signing the centre.

Reports of Leutele’s potential move to Huddersfield initially came from Sky Sports’ Jenna Brooks who revealed that Leigh Leopards were set to sign NRL centre Tesi Niu, with off-contract Leutele to rejoin the Giants.

Leutele spent two seasons with Huddersfield in 2021 and 2022, helping the Giants to both the Challenge Cup Final and a third-place finish in 2022 before he made the switch to Leigh Leopards.

It was a surprising move given Leigh had only just been promoted but the former Samoan international had a stellar first season at the Leigh Sports Village and was potentially unlucky to miss out on Dream Team honours.

He’s not hit the same heights this year and when Super League clubs circulated the list of off-contract players that they would not be renewing, the 34-year-old featured on the list.

Only now has there been any speculation about where he will go though with a return to the John Smith’s Stadium to replace his replacement Esan Marsters, who is heading to Salford in 2025, looking likely.

Will Ricky Leutele return to Huddersfield Giants?

Luke Robinson was asked about the reports after Huddersfield Giants defeated Castleford Tigers at Magic Weekend but the interim boss played his cards close to his chest when speaking post-match to BBC West Yorkshire Sport.

“The club are actively recruiting. We’ve got four quota spots up at this moment in time so obviously we’re looking,” Robinson confirmed, before alluding to the unknown factor of who will be in charge for 2025.

“It’s very difficult when you don’t know who the coach is going to be so that makes it a little bit harder. Whenever good players come up hopefully they are linked to us because it shows we have a little bit of ambition and we want to do things in the game.”

He was keen to note how good Leutele was during his two-year spell for the club whilst also crediting his senior leadership as a major draw.

“He was a great player for Huddersfield. Going back to the things I spoke about with Leroy, you want to bring people into the club that are not only good players but good people as well. Ricky is a champion bloke, he’s a really nice fella, he causes you no issues, really good pro and he’s a really, really good rugby player on top of that which helps.

“Whenever we’re linked with players like that it’s going to be a good thing. He’d be a handy player to have in your team, yeah.”