Betfred Super League 2026: Giants bullish about bounce-back from injury-hit 2025

Huddersfield Giants have some serious ground to make up in the 2026 Betfred Super League after three successive seasons outside of the running for the play-offs.

Not since their Betfred Challenge Cup final appearance and third-place finish under Ian Watson in 2022 have the Giants come close to the reckoning, and little is expected of them in the forthcoming campaign among neutrals.

But after ending the ’25 season in 10th spot, hooker Zac Woolford believes Luke Robinson’s outfit can only improve on their injury-hit showing of 12 months ago.

“It's not very hard to be better than last year, is it?” he muses to The Sportsman Rugby League in association with Betfred. “But I definitely think we are. We're a lot more healthy than we were this time last year, which is obviously a big help. We've all been on the field for a long period of time now so hopefully it sets us up for a good year.

“I had this conversation with Robbo the other day. You can't even compare this time this year to this time last year, it's just completely different.

“We're just miles clear, but hopefully we can stay on the field and keep this going and show what we’re capable of.”

England international Tom Burgess says much can be learned from the difficulties of recent campaigns.

“Obviously there’s things that you learn and take from the previous years and we’ll definitely be doing that this year,” says the 34-cap front rower.

“There's loads of different factors, we went through a bit of a transitional period with the coaching staff and now they've got another year under their belt, and all the players have been together for a longer time now.

“I'm still happy to be playing. I've still got that energy to turn up and train and kick it with these young lads. So I'm excited to keep offering what I can to Huddersfield and help us win games.”

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And Tonga half-back Tui Lolohea is insistent that the Giants can improve on their finishes of ninth, ninth and 10th since that peak of 2022.

“We’ve been through the toughest times there are and hopefully a lot of the boys feel good from that. If we can try to use that as motivation to be in a better position this season than last, then I think that's a win for us already.”

Huddersfield are 9/2 to make it to the top-six play-offs with Betfred and 28/1 for a first Betfred Challenge Cup win in 73 years.

Their 2026 season begins on Friday night in the Challenge Cup third round away to Hunslet, and seven days later they head to Perpignan to take on Catalans Dragons in their Super League opener.

The first match at the Accu Stadium this term follows when the Giants host West Yorkshire rivals Wakefield Trinity on February 22.

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