Huddersfield Giants Jermaine ‘Jerry’ McGillvary is hungry to rediscover the form that made him a World Cup sensation at the end of last year.
McGillvary played on the wing in England’s 6-0 defeat to Australia in the 2017 Rugby League World Cup final and the 29-year-old finished the tournament with seven tries in five games and ran more metres than any other player in the tournament .
However, he returned to England with a knee injury, made his first appearance of the season in the 26-12 home defeat by St Helens in round three of Super League last week and starts again in Sunday's rearranged match at Wakefield Trinity in round four (3.00).
“I hadn’t played for a while and it was my first game since the World Cup final back in December,” explained McGillvary.
“I haven’t done very much training because of the knee injury, so the Saints game was really a test of my knee and it held up pretty well.
“Playing-wise I am still a bit rusty of course, but I am feeling pretty good and it is now all about getting back to top form.
“The World Cup feels like it was a long while ago and now it is all about getting back to the reality of Super League.
“It has been a tough start for the Giants, but I am sure we can grab a few wins in the next few games.”
McGillvary is certainly going to face a test as he will be up against Tom Johnstone, who has made a strong start to the season as Trinity have won all their opening three games.
“Tom is an outstanding player and when I came up against him last season you are aware that he has got everything,” said McGillvary.
“He is quick and strong and he is definitely an England player of the future, because he is exciting to watch and he is tough to play against.”
However, McGillvary is more concerned that the Giants start picking up points and quickly, and not face the mountain they had to climb in the 2017 campaign when only an impressive second half to the season hauled them away from being involved in the Middle 8s.
“But if we are serious about being in the top eight or top six then these are the games we have got to win,” said McGillvary.
“We have to do the job but I don’t feel that we have come up with a complete performance yet this season.
“Every game in Super League is important and against Saints we played well in patches.
“However, in some ways I would rather play rubbish and win, rather than play well in patches and lose.
“Every side in Super League this season is fairly evenly matched and every side can win on the day, but you cannot allow yourselves to ship in too many losses.
“We don’t want to make the season hard work for ourselves because we went through that last season.
“We need to push on and get the wins early and build from there, not find ourselves playing catch-up like we did in the second half of last year.
“Everyone is in the same boat at the start of the season, but we need to find some winning form quickly to avoid being where we were last year and, hopefully, we can start turning that corner at Wakefield.”
But McGillvary knows it will be a tough contest and added: “Wakefield have made a good start and they are a team with a nice balance.
“They have a lot of skill, they have a lot of pace and are a real danger on the edges, and they have also got a very tough set of forwards.
“So it is going to be tough against Wakey and they have good support at their ground and it will be a hostile environment for us.”
Giants head coach Rick Stone is without injured forwards Tom Symonds and Adam Walne and Sam Wood has been named in the 19-man line up for first time in 2018.
Trinity head coach Chris Chester has made three changes to his 19-man squad from the side that got the win over Catalans Dragons in Perpignan to take on the Giants.
Joe Arundel, Keegan Hirst and Jordan Crowther all come into contention replacing Justin Horo, Reece Lyne and the injured former Giants player Kyle Wood.
