{"id":376517,"date":"2026-01-18T07:00:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-18T07:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/376517\/"},"modified":"2026-01-18T07:00:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-18T07:00:11","slug":"huddersfield-giants-defeat-super-league-new-boys-in-forwards-testimonial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/376517\/","title":{"rendered":"Huddersfield Giants defeat Super League new boys in forward&#8217;s testimonial"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/AW6_2370.jpg\" class=\"attachment- size- wp-post-image\" alt=\"Huddersfield Giants boss Luke Robinson\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"  \/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>Huddersfield Giants started their 2026 pre-season with a win as they defeated one of the Super League new boys in forward <a href=\"https:\/\/www.seriousaboutrl.com\/huddersfield-giants-squad-for-york-knights-friendly-clash-with-three-new-signings-named-111809\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Matty English\u2019s testimonial match<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>English was granted a testimonial after ten years of service at the club with the forward starting at prop in a new-look pack that featured signings Chris Patolo and Asher O\u2019Donnell, as well as last year\u2019s mid-season recruit Tristan Powell.<\/p>\n<p>New club captain Adam Clune partnered Tui Lolohea in the halves with Niall Evalds also starting at full-back as the Giants went close to full strength with one of their other new signings, Mathieu Cozza, playing from the bench.<\/p>\n<p>Their opponents, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.seriousaboutrl.com\/rugby-league-news-york-knights-name-first-line-up-of-2026-against-huddersfield-giants-111821\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">York Knights, also named a handful of new signings<\/a> with ex-Sydney Roosters man Xavier Va\u2019a playing from the bench, whilst new recruits Justin Sangare, Nikau Williams, Sam Wood and Jordan Lipp all started.<\/p>\n<p>King Vuniyayawa also started with the ex-Salford man having signed for Newcastle Thunder but seemingly being loaned to the Super League side for this game, a game that they lost 22-4 with Ben Jones-Bishop their only try-scorer.<\/p>\n<p>York Knights taste defeat against Huddersfield Giants<\/p>\n<p>Huddersfield started the scoring with Sam Halsall crossing over after 20 minutes and at that point, the tries flowed before the half-time hooter with Sam Hewitt and Niall Evalds both scoring in quick succession to make it 16-0 at the break.<\/p>\n<p>Jones-Bishop got one back soon after the restart but Huddersfield added a fourth try when former Hull KR man George King barged over.<\/p>\n<p>York did test the Giants but it will be a reality check for the Knights who went on a 20-game winning run at one point in 2025, whilst Huddersfield will see the win as the first of their new \u2018Giants Unleashed\u2019 era.<\/p>\n<p>Both sides have more pre-season games to come and they\u2019ll also be in Challenge Cup action before the start of the Super League season, with York opening the campaign up with a visit from Hull KR whilst Huddersfield take on Catalans Dragons in France.<\/p>\n<p>Check out the latest episode of The Serious About Rugby League Show on\u00a0<a class=\"in-cell-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=_e9WbvZO3iA\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">our YouTube channel here.<\/a><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">It\u2019s a win in Matty English\u2019s testimonial! \ud83d\udc4a<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/GiantsUnleashed?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">#GiantsUnleashed<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/3rn53FxgE0\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/3rn53FxgE0<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Huddersfield Giants \ud83d\udc2e\ud83d\udd14 (@Giantsrl) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Giantsrl\/status\/2012566119727370472?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">January 17, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1768085712_213_srl-logo.png\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Huddersfield Giants started their 2026 pre-season with a win as they defeated one of the Super League new&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25731,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-376517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=376517"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376517\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=376517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=376517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=376517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}