World Club Challenge: Rhinos to get it right on the night

Kevin Sinfield leads the Rhinos celebrations after last year's triumph

Leeds Rhinos produced a big performance when it mattered most to be World Club champions against the odds last year. Ralph Ellis thinks there are signs they could do it again...

When Mo Farah streaked round the Olympic Stadium track last summer to complete his middle distance double it was a triumph of timing.

It's hard to look back now and remember that he was odds-against before both the 10,000 metres and 5,000m finals, but he was. And in both cases that was because his warm up events and his running times during the winter had been less than outstanding. Mo's whole strategy was about hitting his peak twice in the same week in Stratford, and that was exactly what he did.

It's a concept individual sportsmen understand well. Rory McIlroy aims to get his swing nicely honed for a couple of minor tournaments and then turn up at Augusta in peak form for The Masters. Andy Murray is less worried if he gets knocked out at Queen's club provided his game is spot on for Wimbledon.

In team sports it is not so easy to fine tune your performances - there's normally a gruelling League programme which demands winning week in and week out. So it has been interesting to watch Leeds Rhinos' coach Brian McDermott vary from that norm for the last couple of seasons.

The former Royal Marine hasn't been afraid to take a different slant since he took charge at Headingley two years ago. Twice he has brought his team to their peak at exactly the right stage of the season, finishing fifth in the table but then waltzing off with the title of Champions as Grand Final winners. And he's given a glimpse of his thinking in a fascinating interview with the Guardian's Donald McRae this week. "At Leeds we want to win every game... but we know which are the most important," he says.

On his list of "most important" games is Friday's World Club Challenge with Melbourne Storm and the chance to defend the title Leeds won in a bruising battle with Manly Sea Eagles last year. That is worth knowing because it might just help put what appears to be a stuttering start to the season into some context.

After producing a stunning opening day win over Hull, McDermott's side have been indifferent in their next two Super League games, losing at Castleford before taking their time to put away struggling Salford. It's why they are as long as 2.829/5 to win Friday night's sell-out contest. But think logically around the plan to be at a peak for particular performances and that's less of a worry - you'd want to hit the ground running on the opening day and then there's a couple of weeks to ease things through before the next big encounter.

McDermott will also have learned some lessons from his homework on the last WCC encounter with Melbourne Storm in 2011, when Keith Senior's lack of discipline protesting at refereeing decisions was costly. The NRL champions have a reputation for spoiling and slowing the game so discipline will be key, and Leeds will be warned of that.

Storm have yet to start their season, and have been in England only since the start of this week without a warm-up fixture to acclimatise. Home advantage makes it probably a 50-50 game, so big odds against for the Rhinos must be good value.

Leeds are evolving as a younger, hungrier side and as their new Aussie recruit Mitch Achurch says: "Just from my short time here I know the players seem to lift for big occasions."

They could do that again - just don't expect any of them to do the Mobot to celebrate!