HAVING enjoyed a run in the team of late, Sitaleki Akauola is doing whatever it takes to stay there.

The powerhouse prop struggled for game time in 2020 but has forced his way into Steve Price's squad in the early stages of this season.

He has picked up what has become a regular role off the bench, attempting to add high impact for longer periods.

In order to do that, he has been working hard behind the scenes in order to keep himself on the field for bigger stints and support his fellow middle unit players.

"I’ve been having some chats with Pricey – he’s keeping me in line," the Tongan international says.

"Gards (Ade Gardner, head of performance) has been doing some work with me on utilising my energy properly out on the field.

"I want to be able to properly do my job for the boys.

"As players, we’ve just got to put our best foot forward week in, week out.

"We’ve got to do the right things away from training in terms of recovery so that we’re ready for when Pricey calls us."

With props Mike Cooper and Joe Philbin away with England, Akauola is set for a big role when The Wire take on Leigh Centurions tomorrow.

Fellow first-team regulars Chris Hill and Robbie Mulhern are expected to start but with inexperienced front-rowers such as Rob Butler, Eribe Doro and Morgan Burgess among the other options, any extra know-how will be key.

Despite having five players missing through international duty and four more through injury, the importance of following up last week's heroic win at St Helens cannot be underestimated.

Akauola has called upon his teammates not to "get ahead of themselves" and insists they will prepare to face the competition's bottom side as if it were the biggest of games.

"I think we can take a lot of confidence from last week," he said.

"Having said that, it’s important we don’t get ahead of ourselves.

"Coming off the back of challenging a team like St Helens to playing Leigh, our attitude has to be the same.

"Leigh are a very good team and we’re definitely not going to underestimate them.

"We treat it like any other game. Nothing changes.

"We respect whatever team we play and we prepare as if it was a Grand Final."