Huddersfield coach vows Giants will be ‘fitter and faster than ever’ in 2027 amid upturn in form

Huddersfield boss Jim Lenihan has vowed his squad will be ‘the fittest and fastest they’ve ever been’ come 2027, with the Giants’ resurgence continuing on Friday night as they stunned play-off hopefuls Leigh Leopards.

The Giants sat rock bottom of Super League and were cut adrift from those directly above them on the ladder when Australian coach Lenihan arrived midway through this season.

Making no secret of the need to transform things as basic as the intensity of training, Lenihan admitted in the early days of his tenure that his side might not win another game in 2026.

But the fruits of his labour have paid off in recent weeks, with Friday night’s 30-18 victory at home against Leigh their fifth in the last six games.

‘We’ll go into an off-season and everyone will be the fittest and fastest they’ve ever been in their lives to come out into another year’

Lenihan’s side now sit 12th on the Super League ladder – with five of their seven wins in the competition this term having come under his tutelage.

Speaking after the win over Leigh, the 53-year-old looked ahead to next season as he said: “We’ve taken some steps forward in our physicality and mentally about how we see the game and what’s important to us.

“We’re still way down the bottom of the table and we’ve got a lot of work to do to become one of those mid-table sides, let alone a top six side.

“We’ll go into an off-season and everyone will be the fittest and fastest they’ve ever been in their lives to come out into another year.

“It’s been very pleasing for us to have a nice patch, but we’ve got two games to finish the season off nicely and then we’ll get into an off-season like everyone else does.”

Lenihan’s only previous stint as a first-grade level head coach prior to taking charge at the Accu Stadium came back in 2023, when he won only three of 11 NRL games in an interim stint at the helm of Gold Coast Titans.

His Huddersfield side conclude their 2026 campaign with games away against Hull KR and at home against Castleford Tigers.

Asked about where he could take the Giants to in ’27, the Australian admitted: “It’d be foolish of me to say anything too silly.

“We’re a side sitting towards the bottom end of the table. We just want to get to a position on the table where we can let the football take care of itself, and I think at the back end of the year, we haven’t once worried about the table or being last.

“As soon as we start giving ourselves a finish line, it seems to create a situation where we are more worried about that than the actual game itself.

“We’ve simplified the game to ourselves, we’ve worked really hard at bits and processes within the game and in parts, we haven’t even tried to win the game at times this year.

“We’re just measuring our ability to get parts of our detail done really well. That’s all we’re going to do again next year. We’re going to work really hard in the off-season and try to put a bit more depth into the way we play.”

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