Growing up, he had Shaun Edwards and Andy Farrell posters all over his bedroom walls and regularly followed his Wigan heroes to Wembley and back.
Luke Robinson then lived out his dream by playing for arguably the most famous rugby league club in the world. But his heart has long since been with Huddersfield Giants where the charismatic scrum-half featured more than 200 times and earned England honours. Now, as the club’s assistant coach, Yorkshireman Robinson is helping plot Wigan’s downfall in Saturday’s Betfred Challenge Cup final.
And hopefully ending his own heartache in the sport’s oldest knockout competition. Robinson, 37, recalled: “I was only 17 when Wigan won the Cup at Murrayfield in 2002. I played in the earlier rounds but didn’t make the final itself. It was an amazing experience, though, just to be around the group with players like Andy Farrell. It gave me an idea of what finals are like and how you win them.”
He was out of favour with Denis Betts and so missed the 2004 final when Wigan lost against St Helens. He said: "It was a weird situation. I was part of Mike Gregory’s plans and was fortunate to play in the Grand Final the year before. But everyone knew what happened with Mike Greg as he became ill. Sport, like anything in life, is about opinions. And Denis Betts came in and had other ideas of where he wanted the team to go. I wasn’t part of those plans so I went on loan to Castleford."
But Halifax-born Robinson got his chance when Nathan Brown’s Huddersfield faced Warrington in 2009 - even if things did go wrong in a 25-16 Wembley loss. He remembered: "To eventually play in a Challenge Cup final, was an amazing experience but it’s tinged with a little bit of sadness. Your childhood ambition is always to get to one of those or a Grand Final and it was amazing for your friends and family and it’s within your grasp. But just to miss out like that…
"We went into that game in decent form that year. We were playing really good rugby, obviously had a good coach with Browny and we all bought in. We probably played some of our best rugby but there was one thing we probably didn't handle very well.
"I was scrum-half, Kev Brown was stand-off, Dave Faiumu and Shaun Lunt were sharing hooking duties while Brett Hodgson was full-back. Basically, the spine of our team hadn’t changed. We played nearly every minute of every game that year and we’d all got a real understanding and consistency going. And it was probably our own downfall. We’d not really practiced without us being in those positions.
“Kev actually did his knee during the game, maybe about 20 minutes in, and it really rattled us as we’d never not played with him in at six, me at seven, Hodgo at full-back and Lunty and Dave at nine. We probably should have practiced beforehand just in case as we all just ended up shuffling around during the game. Don’t get me wrong, Warrington were fabulous on the day. Lee Briers kicked the ball really well, their forwards were really dominant and they deserved the win. But it is tinged with a bit of sadness.”
Huddersfield, who have not won the Cup since 1953, have their own half-back crisis going into this year’s final. Scrum-half Theo Fages was ruled out with injury and did not make the 21-man squad while Olly Russell is included but faces a battle to be fit after limping off in Friday's win over Toulouse with a hamstring strain.
Will Pryce, who can play full-back or stand-off, is in but has not played since March due to a ten game ban. However, Halifax-born Robinson says head coach Ian Watson has all bases covered. He said: “Watto is a great coach and plans for every eventuality. We have a really good squad depth which means we don’t rely on one to 13.
"It’s probably been to our detriment in the past at Huddersfield. But now we have players constantly swapping around in training. Players constantly get opportunities and even when we do have a fully fit squad, people are rolling in and practicing in different positions or with different combinations so, if we ever pick up an injury within a game or within a season, we’re well planned and ready for it.
"That’s one of the biggest things for our squad this year: the dip from our one to 17 to 17 to 26 or 28 isn’t that big. The players that come in we actually have a lot of confidence in. We’ve gone through a four or five year period since I retired where we have been a little bit inconsistent.
"We’ve had to blood a lot of youth, the likes of Innes Senior, Louis Senior, Sam Hewitt, Olly Russell and Jake Wardle. "We’ve had to put them in the deep end a little bit and play them a lot more than they should have done in the early part of their career. But I think it stands us in really good stead now. Those young lads have games and match experience now. We're ready."
And Robinson says the West Yorkshire club will be thinking of two people in particular when they walk out at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium: Jennifer Davy, the late wife of long-time benevolent Huddersfield owner Ken Davy who passed in in 2017 and, Ronan Costello, the Giants player who tragically died after being injured in an Academy game the previous year.
Robinson, who helped Giants win the League Leaders' Shield in 2013, said: “It can’t be under-estimated what Ken does for this club. But also what Jennifer did for this club. She was a really big part of it.
"Ken’s name, rightly so, always gets mentioned but Jennifer knew as much about rugby as anyone else. She was an avid fan. When I spoke to her she was so lovely. She was always really kind to me but she knew in detail about what was going on at Huddersfield, what players we had and how the game should be played.
"And with that as well there is sadness throughout the club with Ronan. He still holds a very special place in peoples’ thoughts here. I took over the Academy side literally a month or maybe two after Ronan passed. I actually inherited his team-mates and his best friends. Matty English, Sam Hewitt (both in the Challenge Cup final squad), and Jon Luke Kirby, people who were very, very close to him.
"From the research I did and what I’d heard from coaching staff before he did sadly pass, Ronan was actually one of those who had the ability to become a genuine Super League player for a very long time. It wasn’t just due to his talent but from reports I heard from his team-mates and coaches who were lucky enough to coach him, it was just how dedicated he was to the sport and how hard he worked. That coupled with his natural ability, he was destined to be a real rugby player. It’d be very fitting if we could play good rugby and actually get a win in both of their memories."
Favourites Wigan, of course, stand in their way but Giants are undaunted. Robinson said: "They have got a good forward pack. And really good halves. But even to the layman who doesn’t watch rugby league, he’d know you need to stop the speed of their outside backs.
"The likes of Liam Marshall but in particular Bevan French and Jai Field. They are game-changers in themselves. They do things not a lot of people can do Speed kills, whatever sport you play, and we have to try to nullify them as much as we can. It’ll be really important we turn the ball over in the right arrears to try to do that. If we end our sets well and put them in tough situations they have to come out of rather than in open space, that will be key."
