Kruise Leeming column: Leeds Rhinos ace says Warrington, Giants a danger but Saints and Wigan teams to beat

You can only train for so long and we’ve got to that point where we need to start playing competitive games now.

Everyone’s getting a bit restless and we are chomping at the bit to get going. It’s like a boxer sparring, you can spar and spar, but you just want to get to fight night. We’re almost there now and we’re ready.

Warrington away is a tough start and we’ve not been looking at how they did last year. They have signed a lot of good quality players and last year, with a new coach coming in, they were in a bit of transition. We’ve been through that ourselves and it’s hard.

When things change and new people come in, with different styles and ways of playing, it takes a bit of getting used to. Everybody wants instant results, but it does take time.

Daryl Powell is a good coach, he has had a full season there now and they will be a different team. We won’t be going there thinking it will be easy.

We have got a bit of a different look about us too. I think we’ve signed really well, but what has been our biggest problem over the last few years, which can’t really be helped, is the injuries we’ve had.

We’ve not played a full season with a consistent side on the field. The teams who can do that are the ones which do well and win trophies.

You can train together, but it’s when the lights are on and you’re under the blow torch you learn so much about each other.

We’ve just not had the players on the pitch in recent seasons so that will have a big bearing on what happens this year, not just for us, but all teams.

Looking back over pre-season, our results haven’t been the best, but I am not sure that means much when competitive rugby starts.

Pre-season is so different, we’ve had players in different positions and people coming on and off and young lads getting experience in the first team so we won’t be taking form out of the games so far.

Whether you win them all or lose them, it means nothing going into round one. In my career I’ve done it both ways, won every trial and then lost the first league match and been rubbish in pre-season and got off to a flying start.

It is just about getting minutes, I reckon and making sure there are no new injuries. That’s what we’ve done and I think that has been a successful pre-season for us.

On a personal note, I am looking forward to it and it won’t make any difference to me whether I am captain or not.

We have got a leadership group this year and that’s the coach’s decision. He wants to go down a different route, but my role doesn’t change: if I’m captain I try my best, if I’m not, I try my best.

Looking at the competition as a whole, I think my old club Huddersfield Giants might be a surprise package this year. I still know a few of the lads there and I’ve been told their pre-season has been really tough. Nine times out of 10, if you have a tough pre-season and you are really fit it carries over into the games.

I think they will be good, but it’s hard to look past Saints and Wigan who are always impressive and up there. I don’t think you can take anybody lightly, but we just need to worry about ourselves.

We showed last year, if we get on a roll we are a difficult team to beat. We made a poor start and still got to the Grand Final so it’s what happens at the end of the year that really matters, but we didn’t want to do it that way.

We want to win as many games as we can from the start, be at the top of the table and go into the business end with good form and momentum.

We did that last year and you could see, going into games, we were bouncing, we had a blueprint that worked and that’s what it’s all about.

It’s not form so much as confidence that matters. A confident player, at any level, is a dangerous player. You can have the best player in the world, but if he’s low on confidence he won’t perform. That’s what we want, everyone playing with confidence. Then we will be dangerous.