Huddersfield Giants had a brilliant campaign in the 2022 season as they placed third in the table and made it all the way to the Challenge Cup final and for 2023 they’ve recruited to go those small steps further.
One man who isn’t a new recruit but is an integral member of the Huddersfield squad going forward is skipper Luke Yates with the 27-year-old Australian set to lead out Ian Watson’s side for a second consecutive year.
Whilst Yates remains there has been plenty of turnover at the John Smith’s Stadium with the likes of Ricky Leutele, Jake Wardle, Danny Levi and club captain Michael Lawrence having all left.
As for recruitment they’ve brought in both Bibbys from Wigan with Jake and Jack joining, former St Helens star Kevin Naiqama, NRL import Esan Masters and their key signing being Jake Connor from Hull FC.
With it being confirmed that Will Pryce will leave the club at the end of the season to give the NRL a go, Yates is incredibly keen to capitalise on this strong squad which is something he discussed with The Sportsman on their Youtube channel.
“I think we’re definitely stronger, obviously we lost some quality players in Ricky, Danny and Bruno (Lawrence), but with what we’ve brought in and the experience for the young fellas coming through I thin overall our squad is a lot stronger this year.”
Asked about if the experience will be the key to consistency, yates responded as such.
“If you look at Huddersfield in previous years they haven’t really been able to compete for anything for the last six to ten years. Since they got the League Leaders they’re sort of falling away so we haven’t really had too many players that have played at the top level or have won things.
“Now we’ve brought in some real winners so it’s the wealth of experience that is going to harvest some good seed. We’ve got such a big squad with a lot of quality players, there’s going to be lots of competition for spots.”
Huddersfield aren’t set to feature in round one on account of their opponents, St Helens, contesting the World Club Challenge in Australia, but when they do there’s plenty to look out for with their talented roster.
