Super League: St Helens star Sam Tomkins has hunger to ambush Leeds

Champions are still the team to beat but after losing key players such as Sinfield and Peacock are they vulnerable to Wigan?

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If anyone was under the misapprehension that, after the upheavals of last year, this would be a nice, quiet season during which the game could get used to the changes, they had better think again.

Super League goes into its third decade still looking for the magic formula that will take it to a broader public. There were signs in 2015 that it is out there somewhere, but the new system of mini-leagues, million-pound matches and play-offs for promotion and relegation did not instantly seize the imagination.

“I expect what worked well in 2015 to work better this time,” says Blake Solly, the general manager of Super League. He knows that primarily means showing that clubs can really be promoted and relegated under the new regime and that it is not merely a complex way of retaining the status quo.

He is a great believer in the value of sprinkling a little stardust around, but must wish there was more to sprinkle.

The other way of pursuing excellence is through your own development structures – something champions Leeds have done so effectively over the last decade.

A new reserve competition has been designed to provide greater opportunity to players over the age limit for the Under-19s competition, so they do not have to move to a lower league club to play. But it looks unlikely to make an immediate contribution, limited as it is to nine clubs of widely varying capabilities.

In Super League itself, Leeds remain the team to beat, even allowing for the loss of irreplaceable players like Kevin Sinfield, Jamie Peacock and, to a slightly lesser extent, Kylie Leuluai.

One of the teams who should push them, Warrington Wolves, are their first opponents at Headingley tonight. They were a massive disappointment last year, but have revamped a few things this time and will surely mount more of a challenge.

There were times when St Helens looked capable of doing that last season but in the end their resources were just too tightly stretched in key positions. They could make the running this time.

So too could last year’s beaten Grand Finalists, Wigan, especially when Sam Tomkins makes a delayed reappearance in the cherry-and-white hoops.

If you are looking for an exceptional hunger to succeed this year, it might well be found in Tomkins as an individual and Wigan as a team.

They still look a player or two short and might not quite have it in them to outlast the Rhinos over the regular season, but it is easy to imagine a scenario in which, without Sinfield and Co, the Rhinos are vulnerable to an ambush in the play-offs or the Grand Final – with Wigan the likeliest candidates to do the deed.

As for long shots to make the top four, there are cases to be made for Hull, the serial overachievers of Castleford and the Catalan Dragons. Hull look strong up front, while the Catalans have done more than any other club to recruit star quality; now they must learn to win away from the home comforts of Perpignan.

Leeds, Wigan and Saints will be involved in the World Club Challenge this month, playing three top Australian clubs over the course of a weekend. Also getting a second year to prove its worth is the Magic Weekend in Newcastle’s St James’ Park, which was generally popular with players and supporters on its debut as a venue last season.

For a number of clubs, the key question is whether they can stay away from the bottom four and the minefield of the play-offs. The temptation is always to make those ragged survivors at Wakefield the favourites for the wooden spoon but they have a better squad and the limitless knowledge of coach Brian Smith to draw upon this time.

That brings others into the frame, with some pointing the bony finger at Hull KR, despite the mouthwatering half-back partnership of Terry Campese and Albert Kelly, should they ever be fit at the same time. On the other hand, Widnes’s recruitment looks underwhelming and they could struggle.

Teams who could press for a Super League place include the inevitable Leigh and Bradford Bulls, but Leigh have lost their coach, Paul Rowley, amid pre-season ructions and what they will do now is anyone’s guess.

If you were to go by the form of late last season, you might conclude that Halifax are the dark horses.

The season will end with a Four Nations tournament in this country, with Scotland as the fourth team.

Against Australia and New Zealand, an England team coached by Wayne Bennett and including Sam Burgess in the pack already looks a far more formidable proposition than last year’s equivalent.