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Manly brace for cold

Sea Eagles brace for cold

02/06/2012 04:59:56 AM

Premiers Manly are bracing for a 33-degree temperature swing as they prepare to meet Leeds at frozen Headingley in the World Club Challenge.

The Sea Eagles will fly out of Sydney on Friday where the temperature will sit in the mid-20s and land in frigid England as the northern hemisphere freezes through an intense cold snap.

The minimum temperature in Leeds this week will sit around minus eight and Sea Eagles coach Geoff Toovey acknowledges acclimatising fully will be near impossible before the February 17 kick-off.

"The fields are frozen over there and the snow's coming down from what we can tell," Toovey told Sportal on Monday.

"The conditions here this summer haven't been great and we've trained on wet and boggy fields but obviously nothing to that extent."

"There is nothing you can really do to combat weather like that but we'll have a few days to get used to it."

"The cold will be a challenge for any Australian side and it'll be interesting to see how we handle it."

"We'll just get on with it and put up with it and put up a good performance."

Manly at least have recent experience to draw on as the head into their second WCC in three years.

In 2009 the Sea Eagles beat Leeds 28-20 to end a five-year run of outs by Australian clubs.

"They (Leeds) are very similar to the team we played three years ago," Toovey pointed out.

"We know what they are about. They are a big, mobile side with a lot of skill on the edges."

"They are going to be tough to beat, particularly in those conditions."

Unlike three years ago, the Sea Eagles will spend just over a week in England and play no lead-up game before the WCC.

"We've got a job to do and we want to come back with that trophy," Toovey declared.

"It's also a reward for them for last year and a bit of a bonding exercise and we want to show people out there that we were the premiership team last year and we're going to give it a good crack to go back-to-back."

"We've got a team good enough to be up there again this year."

Manly lost 38-6 to Cronulla in a trial on Friday night but were without several key players.

The squad to take on Leeds contains 14 players from last year's grand final-winning side.

Manly: Brett Stewart, David Williams, Jamie Lyon, Steve Matai, Michael Oldfield, Kieran Foran, Daly Cherry-Evans, Brent Kite, Matt Ballin, Jason King, Tony Williams, Glenn Stewart, Anthony Watmough, Jamie Buhrer, Vic Mauro, Darcy Lussick, George Rose, Joe Galuvao, Ben Farrar, Dean Whare.

 

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