Huddersfield Giants have had more bad luck on the injury front with head coach Luke Robinson confirming three more issues after the club’s loss to Championship side Featherstone Rovers.
In the Giants’ second and final pre-season game, Huddersfield lost 24-4 – marking the second time that a Championship side have defeated them this pre-season.
Previously, Luke Robinson had warned that the lack of ‘enthusiasm and desire’ shown against Bradford Bulls would not happen again yet the rookie head coach was left rueing the fact his side were beaten to the punch physically.
“Really disappointed, really really tough,” were the first words of Robinson’s post-match assessment on the Huddersfield Giants YouTube channel.
“I just think once again we didn’t win the physical battle, they had more line speed than us and it’s just really disappointing.”
The Giants will now travel to face Hunslet RLFC next weekend in the Challenge Cup before starting their Super League campaign against Warrington Wolves.
Huddersfield Giants hit with triple injury blow in Featherstone Rovers defeat
On to Hunslet in the Challenge Cup.#Since1895 | 🤝 Womag pic.twitter.com/kc1WF9TNFY
— Huddersfield Giants 🐮🔔 (@Giantsrl) February 2, 2025
Perhaps more significant than the disappointment of the performance was the fact that Robinson highlighted a number of injury concerns, something that Huddersfield can ill afford given how many players are already missing.
He said: “I’m a little bit worried and concerned about the injuries and potential other stuff that might happen off the back of some scuffles and stuff.”
Jack Murchie was sent to the sin bin but three players had to leave the field injured with two of those sounding serious per Robinson’s assessment.
He revealed: “(Elliot) Wallis came off with a bad back, I don’t think he looks too bad but it looks like Sam Halsall has dislocated his elbow. His elbow looks like it’s come off.
“Matty English, someone actually hit him off the ball in a sort of cannon ball. I don’t know if they did it on purpose, the opposition scrum-half seemed to sort of dive at Matty’s knee so that will get assessed tomorrow and hopefully not be too bad.”
Looking for positives, he did highlight the performance of some of the squad’s younger players as a shining light but argued that the performance was ‘really disappointing as a collective’.
Having missed so many key spine players, there was an inkling of good news as Robinson explained that three of the club’s four major injuries could be back in contention next weekend.
He explained: “I was sat in the box with Tui (Lolohea), Cluney (Adam Clune), Woolford (Zac Woolford) and Leroy (Cudjoe) which is pretty much the spine of the team. I think three out of the four should be back, potentially next week.”
