Huddersfield Giants recruitment update as Luke Robinson delivers verdict on new signings

Huddersfield Giants coach Luke Robinson says the club’s recruitment is complete and doesn’t envisage any more signings coming through the door before the start of the season.

The Giants are entering a new era under Robinson, who took on the head coaching reins on a permanent basis towards the end of last season, having penned a three-year contract back in September.

And they have made six new signings ahead of the new campaign – with Tom Burgess, Zac Woolford, Taane Milne and Jacob Gagai arriving from the NRL, whilst George King and Liam Sutcliffe have joined from Hull KR and Hull FC respectively.

The Giants have one more quota spot available, however, Robinson says he doesn’t see any more signings being made ahead of the 2025 campaign getting underway.

“I think we’re done as a club (recruitment-wise),” Robinson told Love Rugby League.

“We’ve got a few quota spots left, I think we’re one of only two sides in the competition that do (have quota spots left). It’s a little bit unheard of to not fill all your quota spots up but I think we’re done until 2025.

“In some ways, there are positives and negatives to both sides (of not having a full quota), whichever way you look at it.

“For us, we’re quite happy with the squad we’ve got, the players we’ve got within it and we feel like we’ve got a competitive squad this year.

“We look at the squad and we go ‘we need to be better than what we were last year’ and more competitive, and we feel like with the players we’ve brought in – and hopefully keeping the players that missed a bit of last year (with injury) on the field this year – then I feel we’ll be better for it.”

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Robinson believes his side are a much stronger squad on paper following their six new arrivals – including England stalwart and NRL Premiership winner Burgess, who returns to Super League after 12 seasons with South Sydney Rabbitohs.

“Taane Milne has only just got here a couple of hours ago, Gagai only got here on Friday,” Robinson said on Tuesday.

“It’s really unfortunate but Sutty (Liam Sutcliffe) had a bit of an injury last year so he has only just started training with us.

“Kingy had three sessions, we were playing touch and he broke his ankle horrifically. Woolford has been in and training with us.

“And Tom had England (duty) so he came a little bit later to us but all credit to Tom, originally we gave him a date we’d like him to be in for and he came in the week before and really showed his character and wanted to get stuck in with the lads straight away. I think they’re all exciting signings in different ways.”

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