On-loan Lunt enjoying his new lease of life at rivals Rhinos

The hooker made a try-scoring debut for Leeds in Friday’s 34-18 win over Catalan Dragons, just days after joining the champions until the end of the season.

However, it came as a surprise to many that the Cumbrian – who toured with England just 18 months ago – had fallen out of favour at Huddersfield.

Giants coach Nathan Brown captured Tommy Lee from Wakefield this term to add to first-choice hooker Luke Robinson and Kiwi David Faiumu who can also operate in that role.

With Lee recently injured, Lunt may have thought he would be due some extra action but, instead, Brown signed Scott Moore last week after his release from Widnes Vikings.

But Lunt – contracted at Huddersfield until the end of 2015 – maintains he is happy with the situation saying: “That’s just rugby league,

“I understand that. It’s a case of if you aren’t getting game time you have to go elsewhere.

“They have got some fantastic players there and I couldn’t break in. But coming to a club like Leeds is just crazy. You normally end up near the bottom of the league when you get loaned out but I’m with one of the top teams.

“It was fantastic on Friday, I got a great reception from the crowd, there was an amazing buzz and I really enjoyed it.”

Lunt played the entire game, unusual for a hooker in the modern game but especially so considering he had only just linked up with his colleagues. “The longest I have played at Huddersfield this year is 30 minutes,” he said.

“And I had never played 80 in my Super League career, so I was really, really chuffed.

“But the boys have been really good. I went training for the first time on Monday and got loads of calls fired at me. But Kev (Sinfield) and Danny (McGuire) have helped me through the teams runs and it has been really good.

Lunt, 25, is expected to start again when Leeds head to Salford in the Challenge Cup on Sunday.