HUDDERSFIELD GIANTS’ search for a new coach is progressing – with interim coach Luke Robinson still a strong contender.
The 40-year-old former Giants player, who graduated to the club’s backroom staff after hanging up his boots in 2015, is on a shortlist drawn up at a board meeting last week.
Robinson, who stepped up from assistant after the departure of Ian Watson, has won only two of eight games.
But club managing director Richard Thewlis told League Express: “We don’t believe the results are a true reflection of the work Luke is doing, given the situation he inherited and the stage of the season we are at.”
Watson left after a run of eight losses in nine, including the Challenge Cup semi-final defeat by Warrington, and ten in 16 league games for the season overall.
The former Salford team chief became the Giants’ tenth coach in Super League when he took over from Simon Woolford in November 2020.
He led Huddersfield to the Challenge Cup final and a third-placed league finish in 2022, but that was the only time the club has been involved in the play-offs since 2015.
Meanwhile Thewlis says bringing forward the Giants’ final match of the season at home to Castleford by 24 hours to Thursday, September 19 is a sign of the healthy relationship between the club and Huddersfield Town, with whom they share the John Smith’s Stadium.
The football team host Northampton on Saturday, September 21, and Thewlis explained: “As we have done in the past, we agreed to the switch to allow more time for ground staff to work on preparing the pitch.”
The Giants’ penultimate match, at home to Warrington, will now be played on Saturday week, September 14, a day earlier than originally planned, so providing a longer turnaround between games for Robinson.
Nine-try winger Sam Halsall is to miss the rest of the season after undergoing surgery on a wrist injury.
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