Huddersfield Giants recruitment update with Luke Robinson hopeful despite overseas admission

Luke Robinson is hopeful of adding more names to his Huddersfield Giants squad for next season, but insists the club probably won’t fill their overseas quota.

The Giants announced the signing of Zac Woolford this week with the Canberra Raiders man, who is the son of former Huddersfield coach Simon Woolford, becoming Robinson’s first signing in the role of head coach. The hooker has spent three seasons with the Raiders and he’ll be looking to add plenty to Robinson’s squad as he replaces the outgoing Adam Milner.

He will be joined at the John Smith’s Stadium by Tom Burgess, a deal that was announced earlier this year. As it stands, though, they are the club’s only two signings for the 2025 Super League campaign and Robinson admits the Giants won’t be adding too many more.

“In an ideal situation I’d absolutely love if I had the tools to be able to go and get three or four and really enhance the squad and put my stamp on it,” he said. “I’m not sure we’re in that position. I’m not sure I’m or the club are in that position.

“I’ve said before that we’ve got players within this squad, within this team that I’ve got, that I think can be a lot better next year. So it’s about enhancing the players we’ve got.

“If the people above me can manoeuvre things and open doors and opportunities for me, because that’s not my department, I’m not in charge of that. I’m the coach. If they can actually do them things for me, then great. We’ll start scouring and seeing what we can do.

“I’ve obviously given a ‘this is my ideal scenario’ or ‘this is what I’d like’ but it isn’t in my hands. So, fingers crossed there will be some stuff that we can still do. Whether that actually comes to fruition is not my decision. So, if we can’t do anything, I’m more than happy with the players that I’ve got within the squad. I think we can be a lot better individually and as a team.”

Woolford becomes the fifth overseas player in the Huddersfield Giants squad for next season, alongside Seb Ikahihifo, Adam Clune, Tui Lolohea and Jack Murchie. As such, the club still have two more spots to fill, but Robinson doesn’t believe they will reach their overseas capacity.

He added: “I think it would be very difficult to fill them all now. Would I like to fill them all? Let’s look at Wigan, the pillars of their club and their team are their youth, but let’s not beat around the bush. Their two best players in their team are Jai Field and Bevan French, and anybody who says it’s different, just look at the performance over the last few weeks when they were out compared to when they’re in.

“I’ve said before, you want for you to have a really successful side, your foreign players, your antipodeans that come over should be in the top of sort of tier of players within your squad, they have to be better than what you’ve got over here.

“We do have a lot of quota spots remaining still. I don’t think it would be very wise for myself or the club to fill in with the wrong people. You’ve got to fill in with not only the right player, but you’ve got to flip with the right person and you don’t want to rush into something and get it wrong regarding whether we got the injury history or regarding the personality because teams and clubs have done that in the past.

“If we can get the right people in for the right role then great. If it’s the case of keeping our gunpowder dry, I think it’s best that you keep your gunpowder dry.

“In an ideal scenario, you fill them up straight away with your best players, with the type of bright personality you think can influence this club, and this team will move forward, obviously. But it can sometimes be beneficial to have, if a player does, for whatever reason, become available.”