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Leeds Rhinos v Manly Sea Eagles: Soup-er lining beckons for Hardaker
Zak Hardaker.
Rising Leeds Rhinos star Zak Hardaker could become a world champion in only his 38th senior game of rugby league.
Hardaker will play in his third major final when he lines up for Rhinos in tomorrow’s Heinz Big Soup World Club Challenge against Manly Sea Eagles.
The former Featherstone Lions junior collected a Co-op Championship Grand Final runners-up medal after only 14 first team games for Featherstone Rovers.
And he scored Rhinos’ final try in last year’s Super League title triumph against St Helens in only his 15th match in blue and amber.
Including a spell on loan last year, Hardaker scored 28 tries in 19 games for Rovers and has crossed 12 times for Leeds in 17 appearances, plus a touchdown on a lone call-up for England Knights.
A World Club Championship winner’s medal would cap a meteoric rise for the 20-year-old who had yet to make his senior debut two years ago. Hardaker admitted he had exceeded even his own expectations, but he regards taking on Australia’s top team as the ultimate challenge.
“It was really good last year winning the Grand Final,” he recalled. “Now we’ve got the chance to be world champions and I am just looking forward to the challenge.
“I’ve never played against an Australian team before, so I can’t wait. I have watched the NRL on television and it’s a tough competition.
“Manly are the champions from over there, they are a really solid team and they will put us to the test. We are buzzing, we have had a good week and we’ll see how we go on Friday.”
Hardaker – who could be opposite Manly’s co-captain Jamie Lyon, who was Man of Steel in 2005 during a spell with St Helens – said he is “not sure” whether tomorrow’s game is bigger than a Grand Final.
He added: “I asked some of the players and some say it is and some say it’s not.
“I’m going to approach it like I did the Grand Final, there’s the same pressure and there’ll be the same atmosphere.
“It’s going to be a full stadium, there’s always a great atmosphere on a Friday night at Headingley and I am just looking forward to the game.”
Hardaker has yet to score this season, but he said: “I think I have started all right.
“I am hoping to get the ball in my hands a bit more this year and try and attack teams a bit more. As we train more and we get to know each other’s strengths and weaknesses I’m sure I’ll be able to do that.”
Leeds are on the back of a 20-6 loss at Wigan, which the centre described as “disappointing”.
He said: “We know we played poorly, but if a few decisions had gone our way we could have got a few tries back and who knows what might have happened?
“But we didn’t, Wigan played well and we didn’t play really well. We know where we went wrong, we’ve had a look at it, we know where what we need to put right and we’ll be trying to do that on Friday.”
Rhinos have named a 19-man squad for the game, including 15 players who were part of the side that beat St Helens in last season’s Grand Final and 11 survivors from the 2009 World Club final, when Leeds lost 28-20 to the Eagles. Winger Lee Smith (ribs) is out, with Ben Jones-Bishop in line to replace him and make his first appearance of the season.
Centre Kallum Watkins (wrist) returns, while forward Ian Kirke is also pressing for his first start of 2012, while Manly have named a 20-man squad which includes nine survivors from their 2009 victory.
Leeds Rhinos from: Webb, Jones-Bishop, Delaney, Ablett, Watkins, Hardaker, Hall, McGuire, Burrow, Leuluai, McShane, Peacock, Jones-Buchanan, Bailey, Griffin, Kirke, Clarkson, Hauraki, Sinfield.
Manly Sea Eagles from: Stewart, Williams, Lyon, Matai, Oldfield, Foran, Cherry‐Evans, King, Ballin, Kite, Watmough, Williams, Stewart, Buhrer Mauro, Lussick, Rose, Galuvao, Farrar, Whare.
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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