Huddersfield Giants v Leigh Centurions: How one more victory will end worries for Giants

However, Ryan Hinchcliffe, their indomitable Australian loose forward, is not one of them.

With good reason, he will not entertain the idea until the West Yorkshire club are mathematically guaranteed of a top eight place.

Last night’s 16-10 win for Warrington Wolves at Wigan Warriors means they still have a lifeline of catching them as do Catalans Dragons although the latter would require a chain of events occurring that is as unlikely as Hemel Stags being Super League champions in 2021.

What is certain, though, is that if Huddersfield beat bottom-placed Leigh Centurions tonight, in their penultimate regular round, any lingering doubts will be erased and they will not be thrust into a relegation fight as they were 12 months ago.

“I’ve not let myself think about it too much just yet as it will be a huge relief,” said Hinchcliffe when asked about what his emotions will be like when they reach that magical point.

“Obviously it’s pretty fresh in all of the players’ minds who played last year. It’s not enjoyable. It’s not fun at all in those Qualifiers.

“I’ve not allowed myself to get that far ahead. When it does happen I’ll talk to you about it then.”

On paper, it would appear Huddersfield have a simple task; Leigh have only won once in their last six games, were vanquished 50-10 at Warrington last Friday and have long since been preparing to do battle in the Middle Eights. However, Hinchcliffe is taking nothing for granted.

“We’ve played Leigh twice in the last two years and they’ve beaten us both times,” reasoned the former Melbourne Storm star, having lost 48-40 at theChampionship leaders during the Qualifiers last term before falling 30-0 in March.

“Destiny is in our own hands but we’ll be preparing for them to come out and play against us.

“When they beat us last time that was probably one of the best games they’ve played all year.

“They beat us last season, too, and we understand they are a good side. They’ve not been able to put together as many wins as they would like since coming into Super League but we need to focus on us.

“We expect them to be tough and we have to play our best to beat them. If we do that and play our style we’ll be OK.”

Huddersfield have put themselves in a position of strength following last Friday’s convincing 40-0 win over Widnes Vikings which condemned their opponents to the bottom four.

It was a much-needed response after the previous week’s loss at Salford had threatened to derail their bid for safety.

That said, Hinchcliffe admitted they were still far from happy.

“Although we scored 40 points it was a scrappy game,” he said, as Giants recorded their fifth win in eight games.

“We probably didn’t build pressure like we wanted and that’s something we’ve really worked on over the last three months.

“It is a strange feeling given we won 40-0 but we’ve developed as a group and have our standards that we like to keep. We had some good passages of play but we made way too many errors.

“To nil them was satisfying but Widnes will openly admit they were off. We did score 40 points so we’re not too disappointed, but we still have a lot of improvement left in us which is nice thing.

“We’d been playing pretty decent over the last couple of months and that Salford result was a kick up the backside. It was a reality check; Salford played really well, we were just a little off in a few areas but that’s all you need.

“It helped us realise how we have to play to win games. It was important we beat Widnes and built some confidence. We need to continue that now.”

Hinchcliffe earned man-of-the-match for his heavily involved try-scoring display. He is more used to operating at the other end of the table, winning the 2012 NRL Grand Final for Melbourne.

Hinchcliffe, 32, said: “It’s nice to get reward for the effort.

“Last year was a tough year for me so it’s nice to be contributing to the team and see the team winning.”