IN-FORM Huddersfield Giants hooker Shaun Lunt will head to Hull KR tonight with his confidence sky-high – despite being left out of the England squad to face the Exiles next Friday.

The 26-year-old has been in outstanding form all season and was widely tipped to be named in national coach Steve McNamara’s 20-man squad.

That wasn’t the case for the man himself, who never expected to receive the call anyway.

But he admits he has been flattered by the numbers who have been championing his England cause, and hopes to use that as an extra source of motivation at Craven Park tonight.

“Because I’m not in the England Elite Training Squad I never expected to be picked in the first place,” said Lunt.

“So it had no impact on me at all when the squad was announced. Who’s in and who’s out is down to Steve, and he’ll either succeed or fail on the back of the choices he makes.

“But I have been flattered to hear so many saying I should have been picked.

“For me, that counts for a lot. That’s given me a huge lift and is all the proof I really need that I’m doing my job.

“I’m happy for other people to keep fighting my corner, because all I’m focused on is playing as well as I can for the Giants .

“I really am loving it here. I’m happy with my role, I’m happy with the way I’m playing and I’m happy with the way the team’s going.

“So I’m certainly not going to lose any sleep that I’m not in the England squad at the moment.

“Whether I’m in the squad or not, it doesn’t change the fact that being part of this Giants set-up is awesome.”

And he’s sure he’ll remain in a positive mood after tonight’s game.

“I suppose some people may think it’s going to be a challenge for us to back-up tonight after playing Saints the other day ,” added Lunt, who was again in top form during the 25-16 triumph.

“But we don’t see it like that at all.

“When you’re winning, you don’t seem to feel the bumps as much, so we’re looking forward to this latest challenge.

“And we’re all ready to give it 100%, because we know that after tonight we don’t have another game for a couple of weeks.

“We’ve all been given a bit of time off, so we can give it everything against Hull KR and then think about resting up.”