Ferres is aiming to inflict more pain on old club

The England second-row was then, of course, in Fartown colours last September having hoped to lift a second League Leaders’ Shield in three years on a dramatic night at the John Smith’s Stadium.

Instead, though, he could only watch on helplessly as international colleague Ryan Hall raced away in the last seconds to snatch victory for Leeds, who instead beat both Huddersfield and Wigan to top spot and eventually went on to win another Grand Final.

However, when Ferres was sold to Leeds earlier this year after a much-publicised off-field indiscretion, he must have thought three successive seasons of almost reaching Old Trafford would become a faded memory having joined the seven-times Super League champions.

Yet tonight, when the 29-year-old faces his former Giants colleagues for the first time since, Rhinos somehow find themselves bottom of the table without a single point after three games.

That is surreal enough but to add to the bizarre state of affairs, Huddersfield are also on zero and only up to 11th by virtue of a marginally superior points difference.

No one could truly have envisaged any of this – some wags are even saying this is a battle to avoid the cursed Middle Eights – even considering both clubs being largely hamstrung by injuries.

“It is disappointing, but we dust ourselves off and go again,” maintained Ferres, who endured defeat in Leeds’ World Club Challenge against North Queensland Cowboys as well as that trio of Super League losses.

“That’s the beauty of it; we get an opportunity to put things right on Friday.

“It is a big game, a Sky game and a bit of a local derby. The incentive is certainly there for us to go out and do a job on them.

“(Personally) I have settled in fine, everything is sweet and it is just those results that have been disappointing.

“It would be nice to get the win and get the monkey off our back.

“It has been going all right, I have put some decent shifts in and I think once the team starts performing and injuries clear up, collectively we’ll get things right and it’ll all pan out for us.

“And I am looking forward to it, I’m not going to lie. I left in different circumstances and I’m looking forward to getting back out there and righting some wrongs.”

Indeed, Leeds will hope he does.

They paid a significant transfer fee to bring Ferres down the M62 and, although no one would doubt his talent, they could really do with him making a telling impact tonight to get them moving.

That is especially true with so many key personnel, like England team-mates Danny McGuire, Carl Ablett and Tom Briscoe, all sidelined. Ferres’ will certainly want to bring all his experience and the creative options he offers out wide with his offloading to the 80 minutes ahead.

He has started all four games for them this term, including the narrow 32-28 defeat in Perpignan last Saturday, but is still yet to score.

The former Castleford Tigers and Bradford Bulls forward added: “It is all about us this week.

“We’ve had a couple of disappointing performances and we’ll be out to rectify that.

“They are in a similar situation – they have had their injury difficulties – but we need a performance and a result.

“For the last couple of weeks what we’ve dished up is not what’s expected here.

“We are looking to hopefully this week put that complete performance together.

“We haven’t had many bits of luck or bounces of the ball yet. Hopefully that will swing around and we’ll get some of that and we’ll get momentum with it.

“I think the effort’s there. We are working hard for each other, but we’re not smart in the right areas at times. Hopefully that will all come together for us.”

Whatever happens, all eyes will be on the Castlefordian come what may.