My Ultimate Team: Luke Robinson’s best 13 of team-mates including Wigan Warriors, Huddersfield Giants icons
Huddersfield Giants coach Luke Robinson is Love Rugby League's next guest on My Ultimate Team
Huddersfield Giants coach Luke Robinson is the next guest on My Ultimate Team, our regular feature on Love Rugby League throughout 2024.
Robinson enjoyed an illustrious career at the very top of Super League, which included spells with Wigan Warriors, Castleford Tigers (loan), Salford Red Devils and Huddersfield Giants.
The Halifax-born playmakers also earned international honours with England and is regarded one of the elite British halfbacks to have played in Super League in the summer era, having racked up more than 350 career appearances.
Now cutting his teeth as a head coach with the Giants, this is Robinson‘s 1-13 of the greatest team-mates he has played with…
1. Brett Hodgson (Huddersfield)
It was out of Brett and Rads (Kris Radlinski) for fullback. Rads was the ultimate defending fullback, he never missed a tackle. It didn’t matter how fast the attacker was, he would just chop them down and he just didn’t concede one-on-ones. He would give you so much confidence knowing he was at the back of you.
Brett looked like Mr Burns off the Simpsons! He didn’t really do weights, he ate chocolate bars and so on: but when he went on the field he was ahead of the game. He was like an extra halfback, he could kick the ball, he came out of the back and he was unbelievably skilful.
I’ll go with Brett at fullback just because he won the Man of Steel when I was playing with him.
2. Jermaine McGillvary (Huddersfield)
Jez went through a good few years of being brilliant. He worked really hard on the fundamentals and becoming safe as houses under the high ball. He also had potentially the best yardage carry in the whole game. He was so strong, always got us on the front foot and became a really good finisher.
I’ve got to give a shoutout to Ryan Hall as well. I don’t think you can get to be Super League’s top try-scorer and not have something about you. He’s just a mountain of a man so coming out of the back field, he just got you on the front foot. He was a really difficult bloke to handle defensively.
3. Leroy Cudjoe (Huddersfield)
Me and Leroy made our Huddersfield debuts together. He went through a couple of years when he was getting in the England side and he’s playing middle now for me, but he had really good hands at centre and he was quick. I used to feed him the ball early on the right edge and he caused some damage.
4. Aaron Moule (Salford)
I played with Aaron at Salford after he came over from Melbourne. I think he quit became he hated the limelight. He was only in his 20s when he came to Salford, he had won the Premiership with Melbourne but he didn’t actually like the limelight and the pressure of rugby league but he was an absolutely unbelievable centre. A really good defensive player.
5. David Hodgson (Wigan, Salford, Huddersfield)
It was really surreal because both of our careers kind of followed each other – unintentionally! He signed at Halifax and I was a Halifax boy so I had some dealings with him in that way. I then went to Wigan, he was at Wigan and then we both went to Salford but we didn’t know that the other had signed there and the same then happened at Huddersfield! We played around seven or eight years together across those clubs.
Dave was rapid when he was younger but he snapped his Achilles when we were at Salford and then probably wasn’t as quick: but what he made up for was his intelligence. A really, really intelligent winger.
6. Danny Brough (Huddersfield)
Broughy was outstanding with us at the Giants in 2013. Unbelievable kicking game and the ultimate competitor. He probably didn’t live the most professional life off the field all the time but when he went on the training field or when he played a game, you just knew he was going to give everything. His kicking game was phenomenal, he had a really good right to left bullet pass.
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7. Adrian Lam (Wigan)
I was his understudy at Wigan. I was a young lad coming through and Lammy had done it all, being a State of Origin captain and playing internationals. A really intelligent and smart rugby league player.
8. James Graham (England)
I’m gonna go with James Graham. I only played a limited time with him for England but he was a generational player. What I mean by generational player is that over time, some players can change the way positions are perceived and the way the game is played and he was one of them. He started playing massive minutes as a prop but could also ball play. He could take the ball to the line and have the half-backs out of the back of him. He went over to the NRL and captained sides, so that just shows the respect everyone has for him.
Stuart Fielden also came close to getting in the front-row over Jammer as he was the best front-rower in the game for a few years but I’m going to stick with Jammer – just!
9. James Roby (England)
I played with Robes for England. He won Man of Steel when he was 20 or 21, or something ridiculous like that. I didn’t appreciate the simplicity of what he did. Every single pass was on the money. He is one of those players that you don’t realise what you’ve got until it’s gone. When I played with him for England, everything was on the money from him. He was so consistent with the way he played.
A shoutout to Tez Newton, too. Tez was a bit of a jack the lad and funny, I think I was the butt of his joke sometimes! I was a 17-year-old, very chirpy and very easy to get a bite out of, so I think Tez used to play his tricks on me as much as anyone else. He was a really tough competitor on the field. People forget how creative he was around the dummy half because they remember him for being an aggressive defender, which he was, but he was also crafty around dummy half.
10. Andy Farrell (Wigan)
I know he played the majority of his career at 13 but he played a fair bit at prop in his last few years, so I’m putting him in the front-row to get him in this team!
He is the ultimate man, really. Everything he touches, he just wins. When I was coming through I was a bit cheeky and a bit cocky but Faz wouldn’t let you win anything. When you look at the career he’s had, he’s never really had many lows, he has been one of the best rugby league players and is now one of the best coaches in rugby union.
He just had an aura about him. When you went in the dressing room, everybody took note and listened. He was skilful, kicked goals, powerful, leader – had everything.
11. Sam Burgess (England)
It’s got to be Sam Burgess, hasn’t it? I played a bit with him for England in his earlier days when he was playing in the back-row. He is going to go down as one of the greatest players that England has ever produced. He’s big, he’s strong, he’s aggressive but he is someone who could move for a big man, he had a good step, a good offload game. An outstanding back-rower.
12. Gaz Ellis (England)
I played with Gaz for England and I think he won the Player of the Year three years on the trot at Wests Tigers, which shows how good of a player he was. Although I didn’t have the luxury of playing with him week in, week out, he was another player who could whack when he needed to. He could bend people in half defensively and could run an unbelievable line.
13. Sean O’Loughlin (Wigan and England)
Lockers is my 13. He is one of my mates who I grew up playing with at Wigan, he was the year above me in the academy and I spent half my time with him playing snooker and pool with him in Wigan!
He is somebody who could float between being a half-back and 13. He could hit, he could bend players in half and in the Michael Maguire and Shaun Wane era at Wigan, everything went through him.
He was a linchpin for Wigan. Everything went through him, whether that was him carrying the ball to create space for the halves or whether it was him actually taking on the line himself. Towards the end of his career it seemed like they just rolled him out for finals! But the fact he hadn’t played and still was the best player on the field when he did was probably a mark of the man. He is a really good bloke on top of that as well.
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