Huddersfield Giants Rugby League

For many people, the Huddersfield Giants is where rugby league began and their popularity remains strong, even if success hasn’t exactly flowed in recent times. This reputation and popularity has made Huddersfield Giants betting very interesting.

Follow the links to 188BET for all the latest Huddersfield Giants betting and rugby league betting on all the major leagues and cups. Alternatively you can read on to find out more about the history of the Huddersfield Giants and past successes.

The Sleeping Giants

The Huddersfield Giants could be renamed the Sleeping Giants as it has been so long since they tasted regular success.

For a town that calls itself 'The Birthplace of Rugby League' it is a club that has been in the wilderness for too long.

Huddersfield have seven top-flight titles to their name and six Challenge Cup victories - but their most recent success came way back in 1961-62.

On August 29th 1895 in the George Hotel in Huddersfield, 22 teams met and formed the Northern Rugby Football Union, which later became the Rugby Football League.

Founding Member

As one of the founding members of the sport, Huddersfield quickly established themselves as the first powerhouse of the game.

The golden era for Huddersfield came in the five years up to the First World War. In that time the club - known as 'The Team of All Talents' - won a staggering 13 trophies thanks mainly to the efforts of centre Harold Wagstaff, wing Albert Rosenfeld and second row Doug Clark, who were later elected to the Rugby League Hall of Fame.

For all the success in the early part of the century, though, by the 1970s the club was on the verge of collapse as crowds dwindled.

The Yorkshire outfit struggled on through the 1980s and early 1990s, but they received an unexpected bonus when they were placed in Super League in 1998 after Paris Saint-Germain withdrew.

A merger with Sheffield Eagles occurred in 1999 and the club became known as the Huddersfield-Sheffield Giants, but more popularly as 'Shuddersfield'. The name lasted just one season, though, and they went back to being known as the Huddersfield Giants.

However, the name change did not bring any immediate dividends, as in the four seasons between 1998 and 2001 they lost 81 out of 99 games.

Things have picked up in recent seasons, though, thanks to the coaching of Tony Smith and Jon Sharp and after reaching the Challenge Cup final in 2006, when they lost to St Helens in the final, they finished fifth in the Super League the following year and qualified for the play-offs for the first time.