Huddersfield Giants head coach Luke Robinson was dismayed with his side’s performance in the 34-8 loss to Castleford Tigers, bluntly admitting that his side were ‘absolutely rubbish’ in his initial reaction to the defeat.
It’s a third consecutive defeat to start the season and arguably the worst so far with Huddersfield simply coughing up the ball too much and gifting Castleford a leg-up, which the Tigers gratefully accepted.
Whilst injuries are hurting Huddersfield, Robinson insisted that those on the pitch can and should be dishing up better with the Giants coach pulling few punches when speaking to Sky Sports post-match.
“We were rubbish, absolutely rubbish,” Robinson said to start before explaining where and how his side lost the match.
“It’s a very simple game if you hold on to the ball, you put them under a bit of pressure and you put them under a little bit of stress, but we just dropped the ball over and over and over again, which meant we’re always on the back foot, and we start chasing the tail from then on.
“Then all of a sudden you lose the energy battle then, so you’re on the back foot, and you can never really regain it back, and it’s something we’ve got to get to grips with very early.”
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Injuries not an excuse for ‘rubbish’ Huddersfield Giants
Making matters worse was the fact that Castleford operated at 100% completion percentage in the second half as Huddersfield shipped another three tries, including one from former player Ashton Golding.
Asked if his players simply have to be better, Robinson agreed: “Yeah, 100%. We’re missing a fair chunk of our actual starting 13, probably the better players within squad, if I’m being brutally honest, but the players that we’re putting out there are still good enough to win.”
Making matters worse, he confirmed a fresh injury as well: “It’s unfortunate that probably our best player this year has been Sam Halsall by a country mile, and it looks like he’s just got off with an hamstring injury as well, but look, it’s no excuse.
“We’ve got men out, we’ve got key players out that are really influential for us, but even so, the players that we’ve got are good enough to do a job, and we’ve got to learn and learn quick.
“You can’t just keep giving them the ball over and over again, and expect to get anything from the game, because it just robs you of energy. By the end of the game, you’re running on fumes, you’ve got no energy left, because you haven’t done the right things early on, you haven’t invested early.”
He then challenged his players, stating: “We’ve got to start investing early, and doing the right things, and putting ourselves in a position, and we just didn’t do that tonight.
“It’s so frustrating, so frustrating, and look, there is loads of men out, but I still feel like the players that are out there, they can still do a job.”
Huddersfield injury issues not letting up
With Halsall potentially added to an injury list that already includes the likes of Adam Clune, Niall Evalds, Harry Rushton, Joe Greenwood, Adam Swift and Liam Sutcliffe, the Giants have to face World Champions Hull KR back-to-back in both Super League and the Challenge Cup.
Looking ahead, Robinson explained that the injury situation likely won’t be much better: “The vast majority of those players that are out at this moment in time aren’t back, I think for another five weeks, I think the majority of them aren’t back for five weeks. The squad that we’ve got at this moment in time is the squad we’ve got.”
As for what he could do, Robinson admitted: “I can’t make too many changes, if I’m honest, I’ve already pulled (Tanguy) Zenon in from Halifax, a French kid who’s only trained with us twice, he’s straight in, but we’ve just got to make sure the squad that we have at the moment, we lick our wounds and we learn, but we need to learn fast.
“It was very difficult last year with the injuries that we had, and it’s probably been no different this year, really, and just something where I’ve become accustomed to, if I’m honest, just not having a full squad to pick from, it’s the norm for me now.”
A first win of the 2026 Season for @CTRLFC 🐯#SuperLeague pic.twitter.com/VveoSVOEuH
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