Saturday afternoon was meant to provide a glimpse into a different, more optimistic future for Huddersfield Giants. But in the end, it was another stark reminder of why rugby league in the West Yorkshire town is facing an existential fight.
Super League has been thriving lately but if there is one place where the game has stagnated, if not regressed, it is in the town where rugby league was born in 1895. Huddersfield have struggled for much of the summer era, barring the odd flirtation with the elite, but the past 18 months have been bleak even by those standards.
This weekend felt like another critical moment for rugby league in the town. The Giants have long felt like second-class citizens at the Accu Stadium, the home they share with Huddersfield Town’s footballers, and with the ground unavailable they were forced into relocating their home game against Toulouse to the neighbouring town of Dewsbury, and the smaller 5,000-capacity Flair Stadium.
It was an occasion and experience that sadly added further fuel to the belief that, with London Broncos set to join the Super League in 2027, Huddersfield are vulnerable. Beaten again, this time 36-16 by a newly promoted team, it was the meek manner of their display that would have caused the greatest alarm.
Having already confirmed they will be forced into finding a new home venue outside the town for at least a season or two, Huddersfield are in limbo off the field, not just on it. They want to be in a new stadium in the town by 2030 but have still not found a suitable site. Time is ticking.
The prospect is growing of them playing in nearby Halifax next year without finalising plans for a return to Huddersfield. Is elite-level rugby league on the verge of disappearing in the place where it all began 131 years ago?
The man Huddersfield have turned to in order to deliver their 2030 vision insists all is not lost. The former Rugby Football League chief executive Ralph Rimmer has been brought in to deliver their stadium dream as well as halt their alarming slide on the field. “I found a club that was full of good people but had lost direction and had lost confidence,” he says.
Rimmer undertook a piece of consultancy work that presented a brutal truth to Huddersfield’s longstanding owner, Ken Davy, who has invested tens of millions of his own fortune with little return. Rimmer says, “Nobody pushed back at all when I explained where I thought the club was and the reasons it finds itself in this position.
“My analysis was harsh and raw. They realised they either had to grasp this opportunity or let the club drift away once and for all. That would have saved Ken a lot of money. Part of the issue is the club lives in the shadows of Huddersfield Town and the way they’re positioned in the town and the existing stadium itself. But it doesn’t have a great perception within rugby league either.”
That view was shared on Saturday by Huddersfield supporters. “The club has stood still for well over a decade now while other teams have driven forwards,” says Daniel, a fan for more than 20 years. “We’re existing solely on the owner’s wealth, and if we don’t get our act together soon I could understand why Super League would want rid of us. We bring nothing.”
Rimmer’s – and Huddersfield’s – biggest challenge is engaging the town’s sporting public. Crowds have dwindled from about 7,500, which would look and sound great in a new custom-built venue, to about 4,000. Results such as Saturday’s, an 11th defeat in 13 league games, will do little to tempt lapsed fans to return.
At least they have woken up to their malaise. Instead of aimlessly investing the owner’s wealth into questionable recruitment as they have for most of the past decade, Huddersfield will soon open a purpose-built training facility in the town. The stadium dream, if realised, will also give them a home and a place to build around.
But there is really only one thing that matters: results. “We’re not Leeds or Wigan, and that’s fine – we’re going to try do things differently,” Rimmer says. “We’ve got business plans around every year through to 2030 and now the club has some direction behind it. But we need to attract – and keep – the right personnel.”
The IMG grading criteria that determine who is in Super League are in Huddersfield’s favour, Rimmer believes. On the pitch, the Giants have turned to the highly rated Australian head coach Jim Lenihan – but after two defeats in his first two games he will already be acutely aware of the size of the task ahead.
Other clubs such as Wakefield and Hull KR have shown there is a path from the bottom of Super League to the top in relatively short order. And work is being done to build a brighter future. But, right now, the birthplace of rugby league feels like anything but a hotbed of the sport.