Saturday afternoon was meant to provide a glimpse into a different, more optimistic future for Huddersfield Giants. But in the end, it was another stark reminder of why rugby league in the West Yorkshire town is facing an existential fight.
Super League has been thriving lately but if there is one place where the game has stagnated, if not regressed, it is in the town where rugby league was born in 1895. Huddersfield have struggled for much of the summer era, barring the odd flirtation with the elite, but the past 18 months have been bleak even by those standards.
