Jonny Lomax: We want to do Super League justice

St Helens star Jonny Lomax hopes his side can help Super League “get the respect it deserves” in Saturday’s World Club Challenge.

The Super League champions take on their NRL counterparts Penrith Panthers in the World Club Challenge on Saturday. The winner will be crowned the world’s best club side.

Lomax hopes the whole of England can get behind Saints as they aim to topple the Australians.

“I’m not sure if we’d get the support from the others but we’ve like to think we’ll represent the competition and do them proud,” Lomax told Love Rugby League.

“That’s what you want to do. You want it to be competitive and you want the respect of both sides of the world and it’s an opportunity where we can try to do Super League justice and hopefully get the respect that I believe the competition should get.

“We want to do Super League proud and we want to do ourselves proud. As a group, we’ve been told we couldn’t do things for a few years now and that the wheels will fall off and things like that and sometimes that’s a bit of a driver, but now the opportunity is there.

“We want to put in a good account of ourselves, do each other proud and represent Super League well.”

WCC: St Helens v Penrith Panthers: Squad news, TV coverage & predictions

Saints embracing underdogs tag, insists Jonny Lomax

St Helens may have won the Super League Grand Final four times in a row but they head into the World Club Challenge as underdogs.

Earlier this week, St Helens full-back Jack Welsby told Love Rugby League that they are making the most of being the outsiders, with Lomax echoing the comments made my his team-mate.

Lomax said: “We’re in a bit of a role reversal of the last few years. It is quite nice in some regards. It means there’s less pressure on you, there’s less people wanting you to be knocked off.

“It’s a change of experience for what it has been for the last few years for us. It’s not always a bad thing.

“Something I speak to the lads about is how we want to make each other proud. We’ve got another opportunity to go and earn more respect for the group and do each other proud. There’s always going to be outside voices, sometimes they are quite nice. As a group we want more.”

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