Rhinos v Vikings: Teams

The Leeds Rhinos will be looking to maintain their charge up the Stobart Super League table against the Widnes Vikings on Friday night.

Brian McDermott's Rhinos are one of the league's in-form clubs have bounced back from defeat at Wakefield with a 25-24 win over Hull KR last Sunday.

Leeds ran out 44-16 winners at Widnes earlier in the season, although Denis Betts' troops are much improved since that meeting at the Halton Stadium in February.

The Vikings might have lost 38-26 at Bradford last weekend but Super League's newest club have won two of their last five top-flight outings.

Leeds have forwards Ian Kirke and Richard Moore pushing for recalls but full-back Brent Webb has one more game to serve of a two-match ban so Zak Hardaker keeps his spot.

McDermott is keen for the Rhinos to maintain a high level of play approaching the business end of the season, while players are also playing for their places in this month's Carnegie Challenge Cup final against Warrington.

Momentum

"It is important that we start to build some momentum in our performances, as we did before the semi-final, and that starts this Friday against Widnes," he said.

"We had a good win at their place earlier this season but they have beaten Wigan this season, so they have quality within their ranks to cause teams problems if you are not on your game."

Widnes captain Jon Clarke is set to start in the absence of hooker Paul McShane, who misses out on facing his parent club because of suspension.

Second row forward Macgraff Leuluai is hoping for a recall after returning from a month's loan spell at Leigh.

Betts is keen for his troops to use their heads more with and without the ball ahead of Friday's trip across the M62.

"On the back of doing some good things, we also created a lot of our own problems against Bradford and made things extremely hard for ourselves," he commented.

"We'll certainly have to be a lot smarter with and without the ball on Friday and ensure we take what we do in practice out onto the field of play."

Leeds: Jones-Bishop, Watkins, Hardaker, Hall, McGuire, Burrow, Leuluai, Peacock, Jones-Buchanan, Ablett, Sinfield, Delaney, Bailey, Kirke, Clarkson, Griffin, Moore, Ward, Lunt.

Widnes: Ah Van, Allen, Cahill, Clarke, Craven, Davies, Dean, Gerrard, Gore, Haggerty, Hanbury, Isa, J. Kite, Leuluai, Marsh, Owens, Phelps, Pickersgill, Winterstein.