Darnell McIntosh relieved to emerge from his rocky Huddersfield Giants spell

McIntosh scored a brace in the 55-2 rout of Hull FC at Magic Weekend and had a hand in a number of other tries, too.

But the stellar performance came after the 21-year-old – rated one of Super League’s most exciting young players – had experienced a number of high-profile gaffes recently. McIntosh’s errors against Wakefield Trinity, in particular, included a basic dropped kick, a soft spilled pass and failing to deal with a standard grubber, all of which led to tries being conceded in a 26-25 defeat.

It could easily have made Woolford question the wisdom of his decision to allow 35-year-old Ireland full-back Scott Grix to join Halifax on loan.

McIntosh – who also struggled with his passing accuracy – admitted: “The last few weeks was the first time where I have had those games where I’ve walked away and had to really look at myself and think, ‘Wow, that was a bad game’.

“I know everyone makes errors, but to have an actual bad game like that was a shock to me.

“It was new to me, but Simon has been great with me really.

“He told me no one is going to go throughout their career without having a bad game like that, when it ends with people looking at you, pointing at you and questioning you.

“He told me it was just about my character now and how I pull out. I’ve got a lot of senior players who have helped me through that, a lot of close people in this team and it’s helped me.

“It’s given me another kick up the backside.”

That showed as stylish McIntosh, who was called up by England Knights in March and now has eight tries this season, helped annihilate Hull on Saturday.

“It’s a fine line at full-back; it can go very well or very bad,” he admitted.

“Defensively I take it very, very personally whenever we concede a try. I just need to stop that and sort numbers and everything so to keep a scoreline like that – not conceding one try – it was great.

“In attack I got a few balls away and managed to assist in a few tries as well as scoring a couple so I was happy with it all around.

“It was an amazing experience playing at Anfield. There has been a massive build-up to it all year and to get out there was great; I love playing in occasions like that.

“Gasky (Lee Gaskell) put a couple of tries on a plate for me and I can’t wait for Magic next year. Hopefully it’s still there.”

Huddersfield are now up to eighth, but could draw level with fifth-placed Castleford Tigers if they secure a third successive win for the first time this year when they head to their West Yorkshire rivals next Friday.

“That Hull win’s been great for confidence,” admitted McIntosh.

“It’s let us put the first half of the season behind us so we can now look forward to the rest of the year.”