Crusaders v Rhinos: Teams
The new-look Crusaders are set to hand debuts to eight players in Friday night's Super League opener against the champions.
Last Updated: 29/01/10 5:37pm
The new-look Crusaders are set to hand debuts to eight players in Friday night's Super League opener against champions Leeds Rhinos.
One of those will be Australian Michael Witt, who will form an experimental half-back pairing with Lincoln Withers.
Crusaders' off-season problems have been well documented, with players still to arrive from down under.
But new head coach Brian Noble's 23-man squad has also been reduced by injuries picked up in training to centre Tony Martin (knee) and second rower Ben Flower (toe).
Three-time defending champions Leeds will rest England captain Jamie Peacock ahead of the World Club Challenge, while giving Super League debuts to back rower Greg Eastwood and centre Brett Delaney.
"Jamie Peacock is huge and massive for Leeds and I'm glad he's not playing against us," said Noble, who stopped short of labelling the champions disrespectful.
"That's Leeds' decision," he added. "They have the luxury of a really good strong squad of 25 or 26 players.
"They've got a World Club Challenge in a couple of weeks which is important and they obviously feel they have enough in the tank without him to beat us."
Even without Peacock, Leeds coach Brian McClennan has 15 members of his Grand-Final winning line-up at his disposal, as the Rhinos look to extend an eight-match winning run, including a 68-0 thrashing of Crusaders in Newport last August.
Crusaders RL squad: Youngquest, Mellars, Raynor, Witt, O'Hara, Withers, Bryant, Chan, Trimarchi, Dyer, Lee, Winternstein, Peek, Thackray, Flower, White, Kear, Lupton, James.
Leeds Rhinos squad: Webb, Donald, Delaney, Senior, Hall, McGuire, Burrow, Leuluai, Buderus, Jones-Buchanan, Lauitiiti, Sinfield, Diskin, Eastwood, Bailey, Kirke, Ablett, Burgess, Watkins.