STEVE Price says his Wire side are underdogs for their opening game of the 2018 Super League season against Leeds Rhinos tonight, Thursday, kick off 8pm.

The defending champions visit The Halliwell Jones Stadium for what will be Price’s first competitive game in charge of Wolves.

Betfred, Super League’s title sponsor, have both The Wire and Leeds at 6/1 to be Grand Final winners, while the teams are 12/1 to face each other in the Old Trafford showpiece on October 13.

They also make Wolves 8/13 favourites for tonight’s game, but Price says there is “no pressure” on his side.

On the other hand, the Wire head coach also says there has been “a spring in the step” of his players as the new campaign arrives.

“They’re the reigning champions and they’ve been a great organisation for a long period of time,” he told the Guardian.

“As a club, we want to be pitting ourselves against the best, so we’re looking forward to the match-up.

“There’s no pressure on us. They will be the favourites but it is all about getting ourselves right.

“I’ve been really pleased with the intensity and commitment of the playing group. The players are over the pre-season now, they just want to start playing.

“There has been a bit of a spring in their step in the past couple of sessions. This is where the ‘fun’ element of tuition and training starts.

“Hopefully we can get a big crowd at The Halliwell Jones Stadium come Thursday night to help us along.”

Price has ruled Sitaleki Akauola, Dom Crosby and Toby King out of the game through injury and none of them are in The Wire’s 19-man squad.

Tyrone Roberts, who has not featured in any of the club’s three pre-season friendlies, and Dec Patton have both been included and will be given every chance to prove their fitness.

Despite their lack of time on the field – Patton only played in one of the friendlies – Price says he has no qualms over their readiness to play straight away.

“Tyrone and Declan have been looking really positive. They have trained really well all week and both of them have every chance,” he said.

“There won’t be any issue there. I’ve got the utmost confidence in my high performance staff to have got them ready.

“They’ve been doing a lot of handling and team structure work in training while they haven’t been on the pitch.

“That sort of stuff comes naturally to players like Tyrone and Dec.”

Talk of a ‘new era’ at The Halliwell Jones Stadium has got supporters excited about what the new campaign will bring after a dour 2017 season which saw them forced to battle for survival in the Middle 8s.

While stressing things once again that things will take time to gel, Price said Wire fans would be “crazy” not to dream of success.

“We’re happy with where we’re at, but it’s a whole new football team,” he said.

“We’ve got a whole new coaching staff and an element of new style. Things are going to take a little bit of time.

“It’s important that we’re patient and keep working towards our ultimate goal.

“As I’ve said from day one, if we do the process right everything else will take care of itself.

“We all dream and we’d be crazy not to.”

Leeds, now captained by former Latchford Albion junior Kallum Watkins, have two ex-Wire players in their ranks in the shape of Richie Myler and Brad Dwyer.

As well as them, it is two players from Price’s native Australians that the Wire boss has pointed out as key men to stop.

He also says preventing the Rhinos from getting their offload game going will be critical to their chances.

“They are a good attacking team and they play with a little bit of unstructured football,” he said.

“They have a strong back five and an excellent number nine in Matty Parcell.

“Adam Cuthbertson gives them that different point of attack with his offload ability, so it’s important we’re doing good in that regard.

“There is a lot to watch out for, but we have to focus on getting our own game right.

“You always focus on key strategics of the opposition and the offload game is one of them. There has been a bit of focus on getting that right.”