Huddersfield look for early morale boost to draw first blood

Although much of the attention at the start of the Super League season will be on how the leading clubs perform, the most significant matches could be those involving sides who are expected to struggle.

The Huddersfield coach, Tony Smith, admits that this evening's clash with Warrington is a crucial one for his promoted team, with Wigan, Leeds and St Helens lined up in their next three matches.

Lose tonight and it could be a long wait for their first points, something that is not lost on the Giants' captain, Steve McNamara. "The last time around, we went a long time before we picked up any points in Super League and it would be great to come out of the blocks, get two points and sit joint top for a couple of hours," he said.

Despite going through the 2002 Northern Ford Premiership campaign undefeated, they had a sticky start to the season with a 40-10 hammering by Leeds in a pre-season friendly at the McAlpine Stadium and lost to Hunslet of the NFP in the Challenge Cup.

"It was more than a blip," admitted McNamara, who missed both games through injury. "It really was a massive disappointment. There are some reasons for the loss – players missing didn't help and a little bit of complacency possibly crept in from the year before when we beat them pretty easily on three occasions.

The Warrington side that stands between them and that aspiration has made no rash promises about this season, but, under Paul Cullen, there is a more businesslike mood about them. For their opening game, they have Rob Smyth recovered from gastroenteritis to take his place on the wing.

Tomorrow's games see four former Leeds players – Dean Lawford, Anthony Farrell and the recently discarded Ryan Sheridan and Andy Hay – in Widnes's line-up at Headingley. Wayne McDonald and the hugely promising Ryan Bailey keep their starting places in the Leeds front-row, even though Barrie McDermott and Danny Ward are fit again.

It has been an emotional week at Wigan with the funerals of two players from the club's Academy team. Paul Johnson, the elder brother of one of them, has yet to decide whether he will play for the first team at Castleford tomorrow.

London Broncos have Mat Toshack, Francis Stephenson and Bill Peden back from injury to play at Halifax. Peden, who won two Australian Grand Finals with Newcastle, will be making his debut for the club.

Hull, who are at Wakefield, are without Jason Smith and Richard Fletcher, both suspended after being sent off in the Challenge Cup tie against Halifax two weeks ago.

Australia will play in New Zealand and France or Russia before arriving in Britain next autumn. They will play England A in London and Wales, before a three-Test series against Great Britain on consecutive weekends in November.