Leeds Rhinos captain Kevin Sinfield proud to fly the flag for Super League in World Club Challenge against Manly Manly Sea Eagles, the Rhinos' opponents at Headingley on Friday night, ended a run five straight wins for Super League clubs when they beat Leeds at Elland Road in 2009, and Melbourne and St George Illawarra have built on that success since then. That is proof that the Australian clubs take the event seriously these days and no longer use the occasion as a pre-season bonding exercise, which has undoubtedly been the case in the past. Manly and Melbourne have previously played warm-up matches in England but the Sea Eagles have taken the hit-and-run option this time, arriving in the country just six days before the match. The Australian champions said all the right things at Monday's joint press conference at Headingley but their late arrival suggests they may not be gutted after all if the result goes against them on Friday. Leeds head coach Brian McDermott, a World Club Challenge winner with Bradford in 2002, admits the English teams are probably more hungry to claim the title but believes the concept still provides a useful yardstick to measure the merits of the rival domestic competitions. "I think it means a little bit more to the Super League teams than it does to the NRL teams if I'm bluntly honest," he said. Rightly or wrongly, most teams and most pundits in England will judge our competition based on what happens in the World Club Challenge. We've got some overseas players in our team but a lot of those players have been in this country a lot of years and have been coached the British way so I think it can be an indication of what our competition can offer. Meanwhile, former New Zealand international Darrell Williams, tour guide with the Sea Eagles' travelling supporters, played in the first-ever World Club Challenge in 1987 when Manly lost 8-2 to Wigan at Central Park in front of crowd of 36,895.