NEIL Jukes will hand former Great Britain international Lee Smith a Leigh debut against Oldham on Sunday but will warn his stellar squad to beware the Kingstone Press Championship’s “plumbers and bricklayers.”

And Jukes admits he’s poised to “upset” one of his front line stars as he looks to mastermind a first Centurions’ victory in five months against their newly promoted visitors.

Smith, 29, a three-time Grand Final winner and 2008 Old Trafford man of the match, and Gareth Hock (illness) didn’t feature in last Sunday’s shock 24-22 defeat at Batley Bulldogs.

But they will add competition for places against the Roughyeds whose first game back in the game’s second tier last Sunday ended in a 22-0 home defeat to London Broncos.

“Lee is in good condition and is CV speaks for itself,” agrees Jukes.

“He’s been there and done it.

“Sometimes though it counts for nothing for me at times.

“People go on about our 13 internationals and you can have 17 internationals.

“But you still have to perform well. I saw some good semi pro guys, some plumbers and bricklayers, last weekend who did the simple things better than our guys.

“Batley’s focus as a team was they understood what would happen if they didn’t do the simple things right.

“In the big stats like completions they were far better than us.”

Defeat at Mount Pleasant only confirmed to Jukes what his team can expect this season.

“The first clip we showed the players was just after the final hooter and it looked like every single person from inside Batley had won the EuroMillions.

“It just re-enforced how much it means for other teams to beat us.

“It was an eye opener.

“So, if that doesn’t galvanise them, nothing else will.”