SAINTS have a chance to leapfrog leaders Leeds on Friday night when they begin a run of four tough games that will close the first part of the season before the top eight split.

Games at Headingley between the two most successful sides in Super League history are invariably crackers, but if more ingredients were needed to add some crackle to the pot then the match doubles as a dress rehearsal for the Challenge Cup semi-final.

Only a point separates the sides, with the Rhinos winning at Langtree Park in April 41-16 after Saints got off to a dreadful start.

Cunningham said: “Headingley was always one of my favourite grounds as a player and I used to love going there, with the fans on top of you, with a nice, fast track.

“My players feel the same way – and I reckon Leeds are the same.

“It’s always a ding-dong battle and not many points difference for a period of the game.”

Saints have named an unchanged 19-man squad with Joe Greenwood available after being found not guilty of making dangerous contact on Kevin Brown.

Saints: Turner, Jones, Swift, Burns, Walsh Masoe, Roby, Amor, Wilkin, McCarthy-Scarsbrook,Walmsley, Flanagan, Percival, Richards, Greenwood, Dawson, Savelio, Charnock, Fleming.

Saints will once again come face-to-face with veteran warhorse Jamie Peacock who has shown no sign of dropping his standards in his last season as a player.

He and rugby union-bound Kevin Sinfield are two experienced players that Cunningham admires.

“Leeds have got some great leaders in that pack – irreplaceables really. Jamie Peacock and Kevin Sinfield both would be in my starting team every week such is their influence.

“If anything it may be a blessing that the young kid (Liam Sutcliffe) has this long term injury because Sinfield is going to get a shot at it. Without him at the weekend I don’t think they win at Hull. The players respond to him – he’s a legend of the game.”

Saints finish the opening part of the season with four tough games, with the trip to Leeds followed by Huddersfield at home, Warrington away and cup semi finalists Hull KR at Langtree.

The points are carried over to the Super 8s, with the top four after that run playing off on a simple 1 v 4, 2 v 3 basis, so Saints are eager not to get too distracted by the cup semi-final at the end of the month.

“It’s a good run into Super 8s. If we have ambition of doing anything then you have to beat all of those top sides.

“You have to win those big games – and there’s none much bigger than this week at Headingley,” Cunningham said.