Huddersfield Giants boss impressed with pre-season effort as Luke Robinson explains captaincy decision

Huddersfield Giants boss Luke Robinson believes that his side are “way ahead” of where they were in pre-season 12 months ago, and explained his decision to elect Adam Clune as the side’s new captain. 

The Giants finished 10th in 2025, after a poor start saw them have to wait until round eight to pick up their first win. Many first-team players suffered injury, with the side being unable to have their full strength team out for much of, if any of the season.

But, the boss is feeling very positive ahead of the new year, and after a strong start to pre-season, hopes for more of the same as they get ever closer to the February start date.

Speaking in an interview whilst on a warm weather training camp with the squad in Tenerife, Robinson gave a run-down of what he hoped to get out of the 10-day break, and how the trip has benefitted them both on and off the field.

“It’s been amazing. The facilities here are second to none. The boys have really ripped in, they’ve been really good from day one,” said Robinson.

“They’ve been put under a lot of pressure, a lot of stress. It’s been a lot of double days, where there’s been a lot of training going on.”

Believing that the side are in a much better position now than they were at this stage of the last pre-season, he added: “We’re way ahead of where we was last year. Way ahead. The amount of players we’ve had on the field that are having to build combinations.

“Some lads have still been coming back staggered, but the vast majority have been here from day one.

“When you get them training together, then obviously you build up relationships, you build up combinations, you build up trust, and I think some of the things that we’ve been doing off the field as well as on it, I think have been really beneficial this year.”

Huddersfield Giants boss explains captaincy decision

It was announced earlier this week that Adam Clune would take over from Leroy Cudjoe as Giants captain, with Harry Rushton being named as his deputy.

The side will also have a leadership group, made up of four players, that will provide support to the newly-appointed pair.

Explaining the decision, Robinson said: “You’re always going to have a captain and a vice-captain, but in every good side that I’ve ever been involved in, no matter what sport it is, everyone’s a leader at some point.

“Within a game, within a training session, you’ve got [to have] a good strong unit where you can hold each other accountable and it doesn’t matter whether it’s the young lad holding the old lad accountable…

“We’ve all got a role to play and the leadership lads are obviously going to help and assist those two in that role.”

On Clune, he added: “The votes that he got within the leadership group, show what they all think of him, the respect they have for him, the person he is, the player he is. They’re going to be fully supportive of him and Harry.

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