Robinson content Huddersfield 
have left Wolves with tough call

The dynamic scrum-half led the way as the West Yorkshire club thrashed Hull FC 76-18 in Thursday’s preliminary semi-final at John Smith’s Stadium.

They are now just 80 minutes away from a maiden Grand Final appearance but must wait until tomorrow lunchtime to see who their last four opponents will be.

As League Leaders’ Shield winners, Huddersfield had the original ClubCall option but they relinquished that – and home advantage in the semi-finals – following a qualifying play-off loss against Wigan Warriors.

Instead, second-placed Warrington Wolves now get the dubious honour to decide who they want to entertain on Thursday night.

Wigan host the other semi-final the following evening but all eyes will now be on Warrington head coach Tony Smith who, in turn, will have been keenly watching last night’s other eliminator between Leeds Rhinos and St Helens.

Tellingly, they have defeated Huddersfield in each of their last eight meetings, including knocking them out of the Challenge Cup in both of the last two seasons, but would Warrington really dare to choose the league leaders after such a devastating victory?

It would be the first time that has happened in the concept’s five-year history and Robinson admitted: “I’m not sure really.

“Obviously with the way we’ve played this year and our standing in the league as leaders we’d have liked to have that choice ourselves and would have liked to have home advantage.

“But that isn’t the case and we just have to deal with whoever picks us – or doesn’t – really.

“It’s a funny one but I don’t think it really matters. If we’re going to go on and win something we have to play against the best sides.

“Whoever’s left in it are there for a reason. They’re the form teams. Whoever it is it’s not our problem.

“It is a very tough one and it’s good on our part that we’re making it tough.

“Recently, everyone’s been telling me that if we win we’re automatically going to get picked by Warrington.

“But if we’ve made that a little more difficult then that’s great for us.

“However, we can’t control that. It’s not in our hands. That’s way we’ve felt all year – that if we concentrate on ourselves, put in performances both individually and as a team, then what will be will be.”

Paul Anderson’s side certainly did that on Thursday as they inflicted the biggest defeat in Hull’s 148-year history.

It helped banish the memory of last season’s play-offs when Huddersfield were vanquished 46-10 at the KC Stadium and was the perfect response to their disappointing loss against Wigan.

Ex-England scrum-half Robinson, 28, admits being surprised at just how easy it was at times against the beaten Challenge Cup finalists.

“We expected a tough, hard game but fortunately for us the bounce of the ball and everything seemed to go our way,” he said.

“It just seemed like one of those matches where everything we touched seemed to come off.

“But we worked hard and put ourselves in the position for it to do so.

“One of the positive things is whenever we’ve come across a little stumbling block or not played too well this season we’ve played well the following week.

“We worked hard in training to put that right on Thursday and thankfully that’s continued in the play-offs.

“The forwards set the platform. From the opening kick-off they were great both defensively and with the ball so, while the backs got plenty of the tries, they’ve got to get a lot of the plaudits.”

Speaking of tries, this was the first time Robinson had crossed four times in one match while his second of the night produced the 100th of his career.

“I scored four once when I was about eight at Siddal but never as a pro,” laughed the former Wigan, Castleford and Salford half-back, who has missed just two games all year.

“I think I’d got three before and that’s the most I’ve ever got so to get four was great especially as I’ve been getting ribbed a lot from the forwards like Eorl (Crabtree) and Koppy (Craig Kopczak).

“I’d only scored two this year and my average has been massively down.

“My dad used to put a pound on me to score every week but he stopped because I’d done so poorly. In first half against Hull I pretty much doubled my season’s tally.”

Strangely, three of his quartet came directly from stand-off Danny Brough’s grubber kicks.

“They were all pretty simple really as Broughy just kept putting the ball in; he has it on a piece of string with his kicking game,” explained Robinson, about the Man of Steel candidate.

“He can put it where he wants and my job is just to chase as hard as I can.

“Thankfully I was in the right place at the right time.”

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