Jim Lenihan has expressed his deep pride in his Huddersfield Giants side after their heavy loss to Hull KR, though the Australian has hit out at the lack of punishment for two offences that left his players injured.

One of those offences, a hip drop-style tackle by Jez Litten, has led to what Lenihan has announced as a suspected broken leg for winger Sam Halsall leaving the Huddersfield boss fuming that there was no punishment.

Just moments after that injury to Halsall, Sam Luckley caught Mathieu Cozza high with the Frenchman failing a head injury assessment, but again there was no punishment beyond a penalty.

“Honestly, I couldn’t be prouder of our guys tonight,” Lenihan declared when speaking post-match on Sky Sports.

“We’re a team of men that really competed really hard, we only had one reserve in the second half, we had some really hard calls going against us tonight and the way they hung in and the way they fought, we had no right to keep the score to what it was, and I couldn’t be prouder of them.”

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Huddersfield Giants boss hits out at missed calls

Expanding further on those ‘really hard calls’, Lenihan highlighted the injuries suffered by Cozza and Halsall as he explained that his side face no benefit even if the Match Review Panel do punish Hull KR on Monday.

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Lenihan said: “I thought the referee had a great game tonight, but he clearly missed a couple of things there, where [Mathieu] Cozza gets hit around the head. It should be a yellow card, if not a red, but it was not even anything.

“He gets cat one [failed HIA] straight away and then we had Sam Halsall who looks like he might have broke a leg because of a hip drop, that we could all clearly see, but again, we get no benefit from that.

“I’m sure that the match review committee will clear it all up, and it’ll be a wonderful situation, but again, the game gets taken away from us where we didn’t have any blokes to spare at the back end of the game, and I just couldn’t believe how brave we were to fight through what we did.”

Put to him that it was a ‘calamity’ that Sam Halsall, who missed most of the season through injury, was now potentially out for another extended period, Lenihan responded: “It’s a calamity that it’s a hip drop and it doesn’t get found.

“I’m sure they must look at it, and they must have some KPI’s for it, but unfortunately, at the moment, we’re at the brunt of it.

“And unfortunately, like I said, our blokes paid the price, and really, we’re in a position where we couldn’t really get the back end of the game out.”

It means the Giants will be down two key players for next week’s game against Castleford Tigers, their final home game of the season, but Lenihan had strong words for what to expect from his side.

The Australian said: “We’re all about competing, we’re all about having effort, and I thought again today, even in the face of defeat, we worked really hard and tried to really help with our effort, we’re not giving up, we’re working hard, regardless of the outcome, we’re always going to keep fighting.”

Victory for @hullkrofficial 🐦#SuperLeague pic.twitter.com/ER9hWReEHf

— Betfred Super League (@SuperLeague) September 4, 2026