Golden oldies: Leeds Rhinos duo McGuire and Burrow aiming to roll back the years

The veteran half-back, who has been ripping up opponents for the Headingley club since 2001, is, of course, the leading try-scorer in Super League’s entire history with a remarkable 236.

However, in Leeds’ annus horribilis, where they fell from treble-winners to spending most of the campaign malfunctioning at the foot of the table, McGuire did not muster one.

That is the only time in 15 full seasons of first-team rugby, the former Great Britain star has ever drawn a blank.

Admittedly, he was restricted to just 13 games in an injury-ravaged term, but still, that grim statistic points to the scale of just how bad things got for the unrecognisable Rhinos.

Things never really got started for the West Yorkshire club and, in particular, McGuire, who was injured barely half-an-hour into their opening game and his first match as captain after succeeding the legendary Kevin Sinfield.

All in all, you can sense why the 34-year-old is more keen than anyone to get the new season up and running next week.

“It wasn’t ideal how things started,” he recalled to The Yorkshire Post, his injured knee in that opening 12-10 defeat to Warrington being the first of numerous fitness issues to plague him.

“I’d had such a good pre-season and was looking forward to a good first year as captain only to get injured. But I’m excited by this now. Last year’s gone and it’s all positive. We’ve all high hopes and expectations.

“Quite a few people are already writing us off but that’s good for us. We’ve trained really well and just want to get out there now.”

They will do so with the maiden game of the 2017 season at St Helens a week on Thursday.

While some critics do believe Leeds may struggle again – if not as drastically as needing to slog it out in the Qualifiers once more – fans must be heartened by the sight of McGuire and his old partner, Rob Burrow, renewing their traditional pairing.

Although both debuted in 2001 and were the half-back pairing for a long time during the club’s early summer success, Burrow has spent much of the last decade splintering sides from hooker.

However, the duo – who famously don the blue and amber six and seven – are set to reprise their traditional roles in 2017 and, as they roll back the years, McGuire admitted: “It is great. We’d played a ton of rugby together as young ’uns even before we even came to this club.

“We have got a good understanding with each other but us older lads are getting pressure from the likes of Jordan Lilley and Liam Sutcliffe now, too.

“We know we need to keep performances up with those chasing.

“That’s our challenge; to make sure we keep hold of those shirts with good performances – if not, someone will take our job. Everyone’s fit and there’s competition for places across the board here.”

Leeds have earmarked a strong start; they won just two of their opening 10 fixtures last term and so, in many ways, it was no surprise they unusually ended up in the bottom four.

“It’s 100 per cent true that, with just 23 rounds, if you take four or six weeks to find your feet then you are already behind the eight-ball,” conceded McGuire. “We need points on the board early. The comp’ will be tough again; last year was probably the most even Super League for a while. I’m not saying every game was brilliant but there was some unpredictability (in results) and I imagine it’ll be similar now.”

He touches there on the subject of Super League’s quality. Has it diminished of late? Is there a dearth of ingenuity?

“I hate talking down the game,” explained the dynamic player who has represented his hometown club on almost 400 occasions and won every club honour.

“I always want to pick out the positives and build our sport up as it is a great game. But at points last year there were lulls in the competition. Some of our (Leeds) stuff wasn’t great. Some of the other games weren’t that exciting either.

“We need to look at that and change. I saw an interview with (Castleford Tigers coach) Daryl Powell saying our comp’ is (traditionally) about expressing ourselves and I totally agree.

“People want to see an element of risk-taking and a bit of flair.

“Obviously, results and winning overrides things but we need a balance and the first team to find that mix will go a long way.”