Huddersfield star spends night on M62 as incredible Tui Lolohea sacrifice revealed
Tui Lolohea was involved in a remarkable journey to Thursday night's game!
Huddersfield Giants star Tui Lolohea almost missed Thursday night’s game with Leigh Leopards after being stuck on the M62: before one of his team-mates made an incredible sacrifice to ensure he made kick-off.
The main motorway across rugby league heartlands shut on Thursday afternoon after a lorry fire closed the section between Junction 24 and Junction 23.
Several Huddersfield players and staff were making their way to the John Smith’s Stadium to take on the Leopards, including Lolohea – who was travelling with Jake Webster. The likes of Adam Clune were in a separate car but managed to escape the drama.
But Lolohea, who was named in Huddersfield’s starting line-up, was not so lucky. He would have missed the game completely had young forward Jack Billington not driven up to an adjacent road and allowed Lolohea to take his game to the car.
Billington then headed to Lolohea’s car – where he still remained at 11pm this evening. The motorway was scheduled to remain closed all through the night at the time of writing.
Giants coach Luke Robinson revealed: “We like a bit of drama this season. Tui actually got stuck on the motorway. There was an accident on the M62. Cluney and them saw it, just managed to get off, Tui was a bit behind with Jake Webster.
“It’s not moved. We made a decision, I got Billington to drive up and pretty much.. Tui told me he was at Junction 23 and he could see the A road. If someone could get there we could swap cars. Jack got to the A road, Tui got out, got in his car and drove down.”
And Lolohea, having played the full game, will now take Billington’s car back to where he started his incredible journey: with supplies for those who have been stranded.
Robinson added: “The problem for Billington is he’s still sat there right now. He’s been sat on the M62 and it’s still not moving. Him and Jake have FaceTimed us, they’ve been sat there all that time in Tui’s car. Tui is going to take some food up to him now.”
