FREESCORING Giants winger David Hodgson has hailed the work of his teammates as he prepares to face former club Wigan at Super League’s Magic Weekend in Edinburgh on Sunday.

The 28-year-old former England international crossed for his third hat trick of the season in Sunday’s 38-10 top-flight triumph at Crusaders.

That also made it 14 tries for the campaign.

But rather than boasting about such a magnificent early-season haul, Hodgson is far keener to heap the praise on his Huddersfield colleagues who have helped make his role so much easier.

“As a winger, one of your main jobs is to score tries, so I suppose I might be in the coach’s good books at the moment!” said Hodgson, who has also scored three times against Hull KR and Castleford this year.

“But I know that if it wasn’t for the players inside me there’s no way I could have got that many.

“So many of my tries this year have just been a case of catching the ball and falling over the line, and that’s something that can only be done if the forwards work hard down the middle to suck in the opposition and then feed the outside backs to do the rest.

“At Huddersfield I’m so lucky to be working with such a great pack and on the outside of such fantastic players as Lee Gilmour and Paul Whatuira, who make your job so easy.

“On top of that, I’ve also lost count of the number of tries Kev Brown has set up for me. He’s having a great season, and it’s fantastic to be benefiting so much from that form.

“And I hope it’s the same again against Wigan this weekend.

“Because I used to play there matches against them used to be pretty special, but because it’s now over seven years since I was there it’s lost a bit of its appeal.

“As a result, my only thought this weekend is helping us win the game, so we can pick up two more League points and stay right up there with the leading pack.

“We are up against the Super League leaders, but we’re starting to find a bit of form and our confidence is pretty good.

“With Wigan having just been beaten by Harlequins we’re hoping this is a good time to strike, and if I could carry on scoring the tries to help us win the game that would be the icing on the cake.”

Hodgson admits his current form is some of the best of his career.

After undergoing a knee reconstruction over two years ago, Hodgson knew it would take some time for him to get back to his best, and he now feels he’s reaching that point.

“Although you can usually return after the operation in about six months, it takes you a lot longer to get back 100%,” he explained.

“It’s normally at least a year before your running and agility is how you’d like it to be, and I felt I was getting there on that front towards the end of last year.

“As a result, it meant I was able to take a lot more confidence into pre-season training and I’ve continued to build from there.

“I’m really enjoying my rugby at the moment, and I hope that carries on for as long as possible.”