Magic 15 is

“I think we had the wherewithal to finish comfortably midtable last season, but things worked against us.

“That’s not an excuse, but after finishing ninth the previous season I think we got a bit into ‘second season syndrome,’ where we felt we could take care of ourselves and almost changed our game plan a little bit.

“We could have finished a bit higher the previous season with a few more bonus-point tries, so we tried to be a bit more expansive and, by last Christmas, we’d got into a bit of a mess where we were chasing wins – and it all got away from us.

“This season we have returned to being direct and concentrating on having everything right – beating teams up front and then getting in behind and making them pay.”

Huddersfield have some electric pace in the backs – with 21-try Elliot Hodgson leading the way – but Hinchliffe says it’s a real team effort, not just on the Lockwood Park pitch but among the coaches and support staff.

“Credit to the coaches, because they looked at how we were playing and they’ve now got us doing the right things much better and sticking to the game plan,” explained Hinchliffe, the first XV backs coach at Silcoates School in Wakefield.

“Yes, we’ve had some big victories and some where the scorelines have flattered us, but that’s only because we are now making the most of every single opportunity.

“I don’t think our play was any better illustrated than in the 22-5 home win over second-placed Rossendale – which has been the highlight so far.

“We went in at half time 5-3 down but, having said that, we had defended our line for a good 20 minutes before they were finally given a pushover try.

“That we were able to come out and win it with some great kicking (from Chris Bell) and a great try (from Lewis Workman) just illustrated that it’s our defence which is winning us matches.

“Our defence is the key thing. Our defence is winning us the games and our attack are deciding by how much.

“We work on the theory that if the opposition don’t score then they can’t win.

“So we talk about the ‘Magic 15,’ because we reckon that if we can stop the opposition scoring more than 15 points, we will back ourselves to win every time