BULLS coach Jimmy Lowes insists Sunday’s eagerly-anticipated Championship opener at Leigh will have “no bearing” on the club’s promotion hopes.

Lowes was speaking at yesterday’s Championship and League 1 launch in Manchester and was quick to brush off his team’s status as promotion favourites.

Bradford are the shortest price with most bookmakers to reach the top flight but Lowes is not interested in the hype surrounding his new-look team.

The legendary former Bulls hooker said: “I’ll leave that to other people to make us pre-season favourites – I’m not branding us as that and I’m not putting any pressure on the players with any such thoughts or talk.

“Like I’ve said before, we’ll take each game week to week and if we don’t turn up with the right attitude then we’ll get beat. That’s the same in any league – Super League or Championship – so I’m not going to put any pressure on myself or the team by talking us up.

“We need to turn up with the right attitude to give everybody a game in this league.

“We’ll just concentrate on the rugby side of things and do our best – that’s all we can do.”

As the club gear up for their first season outside of rugby league’s top flight for more than 40 years, Lowes said he had a “good idea” of his team for Sunday’s showdown at the Leigh Sports Village.

While Leigh coach Paul Rowley revealed he had a full-strength squad available, Lowes was remaining tight-lipped on which players he had at his disposal.

The Bulls chief said he had yet to make a decision on whether to offer a contract to trialist Charlie Martin.

Lowes was keen to play down the significance of this weekend’s clash but admitted there was a danger his men could be slightly undercooked after playing only two pre-season friendlies.

He added: “Of course there is, but we’ve got plenty of games to get into some sort of shape before the league splits [after 23 rounds].

“Sunday will have no bearing on where we finish and you can have as many pre-season games as you want, we’d still be a little bit rusty going into the first league game.

“You’ve got to ride that out sometimes and a marker of where you are a team is over the first month, not your first game.”

Leigh have played four friendlies and will field marquee signing Fuifui Moimoi on Sunday, with the Centurions hoping for a bumper crowd in excess of 6,000.

Lowes said of Leigh: “They’re going to be a force. Fuifui has been around for a lot of years and has played international rugby.

“But like I said, Sunday’s game, win or lose, will have no bearing on where we finish at all.”