Centre Liam Sutcliffe savouring Leeds Rhinos' tough start at Warrington

Rhinos have not won at Warrington in Super League since 2010 and victory a the Halliwell Jones Stadium in two days’ time would be a statement of intent from the champions.

But Warrington have a new coach, Steve Price, and several players will be on debut and Sutcliffe said Leeds will need to be on the top of their game from the first whistle.

“No matter who you play, you want to get off to the best start possible,” said Sutcliffe, who is beginning his first season as one of Rhinos’ specialist centres.

“I think, especially with how Warrington played last year, they are going to want to set a marker down.

“I don’t think we could have got a tougher game for the first round.”

Sutcliffe added: “They have recruited well and we are under no illusions – it is going to be a massive ask to go there and get the result.

“But we have prepared really well over pre-season and we are really confident.”

Warrington went from top in 2016 to ninth last year, but will be aiming to emulate Rhinos’ rise from Qualifiers to Grand Final winners.

“They will have been really disappointed with last season, being in the middle-eights and they’ll want to turn it around,” Sutcliffe predicted. “There’ll be plenty of motivation for them, playing us as champions in their first game.

“They will want to try and put one over on us, but we are really confident with how pre-season has gone and how our preparations have gone and hopefully we can get the win.

“I am really excited for it. There’s only so long you want to train and not have a game at the end of it.

“Now we’ve got our reward for all the hard work in pre-season and we’re looking forward to getting under way.”

Sutcliffe has been training since early November and he said: “It has been good. It has been really tough, which every pre-season is – it seems to get tougher every year.

“It has gone pretty quickly in some ways, but in another sense it has dragged. Now we know the games are coming around and we will be playing every week it is something we are buzzing for.”

Rhinos begin their home campaign against Hull KR at Elland Road a week today and most of the squad will fly to Australia the following day.

They face Melbourne Storm on Friday, February 16 and are away to Widnes Vikings nine days later. And Sutcliffe admitted: “It is a massive start to the season. But I don’t think we would have it any other way.

“They are the type of games we want to be involved in – you always want to play in the biggest and toughest games. We have got two tough games to start the season off and then we fly to Melbourne.

“It’s a big ask, but we are looking forward to it.”