Competitive future pledged as Leeds Rhinos and ex-Castleford Tigers man joins Hunslet RLFC in key role

Hunslet won promotion to the Betfred Championship through the play-offs after finishing fourth in last season’s League One table. Higgins is rugby league development manager with Leeds Rhinos’ Foundation, former coach of the Serbia national team and has worked in youth development at Sheffield Eagles, London Broncos and Castleford Tigers.

“Hunslet is a great club with great people and I’ve worked closely with Neil [Hampshire, chief executive], Dean [Muir, coach] and Phil [Hodgson, director] on a number of things over the last 12 months,” Higgins said. “The club have been very supportive of the final year of my studies on my Masters degree in sports directorship and I very much intend to put these learnings into practice as we aim to make the club competitive as a Championship club, both this year and beyond.”

Hampshire confirmed: “The immediate focus for Darren is to provide support for the head-coach. In the short space of time since securing promotion, Dean and the coaching staff have done a fantastic job of pulling a squad together to meet the demands of the Championship.

“The administration around this is immense and Darren’s appointment will free up Dean to concentrate on the coaching side of things. To progress to where we want to be, the club has to be constantly looking to the future and Darren will be working closely with Dean to develop recruitment strategies for 2026 and beyond.”