Huddersfield combine reserves with Halifax and Hunslet
Huddersfield, Halifax and Hunslet will join forces to field a reserve team in the relaunched Reserves League in 2020.
The team will come under the Giants branding and will take part as one of 14 teams in the second-string league, which gets underway at the end of January.
The three West Yorkshire clubs have signed a three-year agreement to run the joint reserves side, with the system seeing players from each clubs plying their trade for Huddersfield’s reserves.
Giants managing director, Richard Thewlis, said: “We approached Halifax with a view to being able to help them back in to the Championship top five next year, which is so important to them.
“With their central funding cut and our enhanced squad all needing games, a partnership seemed a good fit and then when Hunslet approached Halifax in a similar vein then it made more sense to include them as well to widen the pool of players available to us all.
“The key to success will be finding the right reserves coach to bring it all together, with each head coach able to put forward who they wish for a game that weekend and for the coach to feedback to the parent club the highlights clips and analysis of their players for them to work on in their own environments as they see fit.
“Some Giants players will play Championship rugby for Halifax and that in turn could enable some Halifax men to play League One for Hunslet. We will jointly review the position after the first year but the intention if logistically possible will be to continue for a three-year period.”
As part of the agreement, reserve-grade matches could take place at The Shay and South Leeds Stadium as well as in Huddersfield in 2020.
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