Huddersfield Giants coach Liam Finn is tipping Luke Robinson to make a swift return to rugby league.
Robinson was relieved of his duties by Huddersfield last weekend, with the head coach departing just five games into the new Super League season. The Giants were without a point at that stage, having lost all of their games and the hierarchy at the Accu Stadium felt as though a change was needed.
The decision brought an end to Robinson’s 18-month spell as permanent head coach at Huddersfield, where he spent much of his playing days, too, initially joining in 2008 before taking up coaching duties at the club following his retirement in 2015.
There had been some mitigating circumstances, with injuries to key men such as Niall Evalds and Adam Clune, and both of those players were back in the side this week as Huddersfield produced one of the shocks of the season by beating Wigan Warriors at the Brick Community Stadium.
Finn was the man that took charge of that game, while the club look for a permanent successor, and he took the opportunity to speak about the former head coach after the contest.
“Just to acknowledge him a little bit, 19 years at one club, it’s hard to fathom if you look down the line, the service he’s put into Huddersfield Giants,” Finn said in his post-match press conference.
“He walks away with his head held high, he’s a great coach and an unbelievably good bloke and I’m sure he’ll be back in the game in the not too distant future. Somebody will want him around if it’s just for his personality alone.”
Huddersfield claimed a 34-16 win over the Warriors and they were good value for it, too, with Clune, Evalds, Jacob Gagai, Tanguy Zenon, Jacob Douglas and Connor Wrench touching down in a dominant performance.
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As such, Finn could be heard pointing to the impact his returning spine members made on the return and how much they have been missed so far.
“I did the interview with Sky and I tried to put into context the difference between this year and last year,” he added. “Last pre-season we had nobody on the field so we had to prepare for having no spine.
“This year we had our spine on the field for the majority of pre-season so we trained with them all there and played a friendly with the full spine and it looked like we were going to compete from day one. Then we lost two key players.
“It was fitting that we played against Wigan today with their two best players who happen to be the full-back and the stand-off missing and you see the impact it has on any team. Obviously they’ve got two absolute gun young players who are getting valuable experience coming in and that’s the major difference, but it does impact on your team and when you haven’t got the resources to cope, it has a massive effect.
“You saw just from putting them in the team today, the difference they made. Not with the jobs they do but also the impact on everyone else around them.”
