RYAN Atkins says his Wolves teammates are unfazed by being underdogs for tomorrow’s World Club Series clash with Brisbane Broncos.

The NRL side are odds on with many bookmakers to extend Australian sides’ winning run in the extended series to seven at The Halliwell Jones Stadium.

However, Atkins says being written off will only drive the Wire squad on more and they are keen to bring Brisbane “back to reality.”

The centre also believes a victory and good performance against Wayne Bennett’s side will “scare” their Super League rivals.

“We’ll go into this game as underdogs and we’re aware of that, but that’s what excites us,” he said.

“They won’t give us any respect, we’re an English team and to them we play in a bit of a rubbish league.

“It will be nice to hopefully give them a taste of it and bring them down to reality.

“We believe we’re one of the best teams in the country but we didn’t perform like that last week.

“If we perform well, it could scare a few sides and can really get our season going.

“If we do a job on Brisbane, no-one is going to want to come to our place and play us.”

Wolves will gain a lot from Gidley switch to full back

Atkins will play in his usual left centre position, but the backline has shuffled around him with Rhys Evans moving back inside from the wing to partner him once more.

Matty Russell fills his spot on the right wing, while Kurt Gidley will drop to full-back to allow Kevin Brown to make his Wolves debut at stand-off.

Atkins believes the addition of Brown will make all the difference to Wolves’ attack.

“As long as Kev doesn’t make me do all his tackling, although I won’t mind if he gives me some nice early ball!” he joked.

“He’s a great asset to the team and I’m really looking forward to playing alongside him.

“We missed his direction and calmness last week, that’s what we were lacking and that’s what he brings to the table.

“We defended pretty well against Catalans but our attack was a bit scratchy.

“I just think we’ll have that extra bit of flair in attack if we’re firing on all cylinders. If we play how we’re capable of doing, we’ll be tough to handle.”

The 29-year-old was part of the team that lost last week’s Super League opener against Catalans and he says the team have been told in no uncertain terms that their performance in the 20-12 reverse was not good enough.

However, he believes the game with Brisbane represents a perfect chance for the team to regain their self-belief.

“We’re all excited, we’re disappointed in our performance last week and the coaching staff have let us know it wasn’t up to scratch,” he said.

“It’s been a good week in training, we’ve all had a good dig and hit the levels the coaches want us to get to.

“We can get our self-belief back with a good performance. We’re playing for the whole of Super League as well as ourselves against the NRL, we can’t wait to get stuck into them.”