Danny McGuire has promised Leeds will remain grounded despite their morale-boosting victory against Catalans last week – after admitting the week leading up to the game had been the toughest of his career ahead of Friday’s local derby with Wakefield.
Despite all the headlines surrounding the former Super League champions in the embryonic stages of the new season, Leeds will make it four wins from six games if they beat Trinity in front of the TV cameras on Friday night.
After being thumped 66-10 at Castleford a fortnight ago, Leeds bounced back with a convincing win against the Dragons – but McGuire said nobody is getting carried away.
“We’re not going overboard after a win,” he told TotalRL.
“We’re very happy to be back on track; we’ve got to start the season well because we can’t afford to be losing too many games early on.
“Last Friday was a matter of attitude and commitment against Catalans, and I think we showed some really good signs which suggest we’re getting better with ball in hand too. If we can marry it all up, I don’t think we’ll be in a bad position at all.”
However, McGuire admitted it was a long week leading up to the win against Catalans.
“It was as tough a week as I can remember,” he admits. “You’ve got to give Cas credit because they blew us off the park.
“I always enjoy playing at Castleford but we were all really disappointed with what we turned out. For the first couple of days after that, we were still feeling the effects of it but as a team, we decided we’d stick together and give it our best shot against Catalans.
“You can’t ever question the commitment of this team and from day one of pre-season, everyone has worked their socks off – one bad result doesn’t change that: we believe it was a one-off.”
Trinity arrive at Headingley on Friday looking to make it three wins in succession – and McGuire admits he’s been impressed with their renaissance under Chris Chester.
“They’re a very good team, aren’t they,” he insists.
“Chris has assembled a very good squad and he’s done a good job from what I can see. I’ve watched them a couple of times and it’ll be a tough game – but whenever you get a local derby at Headingley, the opposition tend to raise their game and step it up – so we’ll be ready to match them in return.”
