Manly Sea Eagles: Ready for Leeds' icy conditions

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Manly braced for freezing weather

NRL champions Manly are preparing themselves for the freezing weather conditions ahead of their World Club Challenge clash with Leeds.

Manly coach Geoff Toovey acknowledges that it will be difficult for his team to acclimatise for the match which will be played at Headingly on February 17.

The Sea Eagles leave Sydney, where the temperature is constantly above 20 degrees,  on Friday and will arrive in Leeds where the minimum temperature averages around minus eight.

“The fields are frozen over there and the snow’s coming down from what we can tell,” Toovey told Sportal.

“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,” he added.

Manly will be keen to repeat their 2009 performance where they beat the Rhinos 28-20 to end a five-year winning streak of English teams in the WCC.

“They (Leeds) are very similar to the team we played three years ago,” Toovey added.

“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.”