Huddersfield Giants travel to Leigh on Friday night for their first game of the Super League season but they’ll be without their captain Luke Yates, who the club believe has been unfairly suspended.
Yates copped a Grade D charge which resulted in a three-game ban and a £250 fine for what was labelled a ‘dangerous throw/lift’ in the final pre-season game against Castleford Tigers.
As such he will miss Friday night’s clash with Leigh as well as the Giants’ games against St Helens and Wigan Warriors, three incredibly tough tests for which they’ll miss their skipper.
Speaking to the press today the club’s assistant coach Luke Robinson spoke on the fact that the Giants are without both Yates and their half-back Tui Lolohea, the Tongan serving the first of his two-game suspension on Friday.
“It’s the first game of the season and you want two of your main players out there playing,” Robinson explained.
“The way it went with the bans, really, especially with Yates, it’s been a little bit hard to take. I think especially when you look around the league, all the other games and all the other incidents that happened, but it is what it is.
“We’re quite comfortable and confident in the squad we’ve got. The players that are playing are good players and have trained all pre-season. So we’re confident in the squad we’ve got still.”
Huddersfield Giants “stuck between a rock and a hard place” over captain’s ban
Huddersfield Giants captain Luke Yates has been hit with a three-game ban, one that assistant coach Luke Robinson has labelled an “injustice”. – Picture by Ed Sykes/SWpix.com
Whilst Robinson made it clear that the club were happy with their squad depth and those that would fill in for both Lolohea and Yates, he did seem to suggest the club didn’t agree with the ban at all.
When asked about the prospect of an appeal he spoke on the “really difficult” situation that the club finds itself in.
“It’s hard for me not to get myself in trouble here. It’s a difficult one,” Robinson responded before detailing the case.
“In the appeal process, you’re not allowed to show evidence from other games. That’s a bit of a rule in rugby league but we’ve probably got five, six, seven clips of very, very, very similar incidents in other games, in other friendlies from other players.
“Unfortunately, you’re not allowed to show that evidence as part of your evidence, so it was kind of one of those where I think we’re a little bit between a rock and a hard place.”
As such it seems that Huddersfield Giants won’t be appealing the suspension of their skipper, meaning Yates will miss the first three games of the season after having played 24 of the club’s 27 Super League games last season.
Robinson continued by suggesting that Huddersfield had been hard done by but that the risk of losing the appeal and being hit with extra games was too great.
He concluded: “We kind of feel like there’s a little bit of injustice going on there, but at the same time, if you kind of put your case forward, there’s a chance you could even get more games, and we don’t want to lose our captain for anymore.”
As such the Giants have had to name a squad without Yates for Friday night and there could be a Super League debut for star signing Adam Clune.
