COUGARS player-coach Paul March is looking forward to a stern test against Leigh on Sunday as his side step up their preparations for the new season.

March's men lost their opening friendly 38-20 at Barrow last weekend and now travel to the Leigh Sports Village to face a Centurions side who swept all before them in 2014.

Paul Rowley's men dominated the Championship last year, racking up 23 wins from 24 regular-season games before beating Featherstone in the Grand Final at Headingley.

Their star signing in the close season was NRL star Fuifui Moimoi, who has joined from Parramatta.

"Players want to play against the best players and Leigh are certainly one of those sides with a lot of superstars," said March.

"We ran them very close at home last season, losing 28-26, and it will be good to have a competitive game against them, having already had a hit-out.

"I'm looking forward to it and, while the scoreline doesn't matter, every time you cross the white line you want to win.

"I'll make sure that we go there and give it everything, so hopefully people can see what we're trying to do here and fix up a few things from last week.

"Leigh will be one of the teams to beat this year in the Championship – but you can't write off London or Bradford either.

"I think Featherstone have put a good squad together too, so there will be at least four competitive teams in that division.

"I feel a bit sorry for the lesser teams who have a much smaller budget and have to compete against the full-time sides and the clubs with a much bigger budget.

"I look at it now and think 'yes, we're all disappointed we got relegated last year, but how would we compete on a £150,000 budget against sides spending £900,000?'

"I think London, Leigh and Bradford will be the teams to beat in particular. Leigh have been together for a few years now and have class across the park and I think Bradford have a better side now than they had last year."

March took the positives out of Sunday's loss at Barrow, although Luke Haigh suffered a blow to the eye socket which will keep him out of this weekend's trip to Leigh.

Haigh's eye injury aside, the Cougars picked up no other weekend injuries.

March explained: "Luke took a knock to the eye socket and then, as he was walking to one of the scrums, he blew his nose and his eye just puffed right up.

"It was initially thought that there was a little fracture in there because it was allowing air to come through into his eye.

"But he went to hospital, he's had an x-ray and there are no breaks in there, which is pleasing.

"I saw him earlier this week and his eye was still half-shut, so it's going to be at least a week, if not two, before he can play again.

"But there were a lot of good things to come out of the Barrow game. It was good that we got a run-out and the players got some minutes under their belts.

"Some lads who have come into the squad played well. I thought Andy Gabriel, on his first outing for the club, was fantastic.

"He's still got a lot of work to do systems-wise but the effort and the attitude he showed was great.

"There were a lot of positives to take from the game – the negative stuff we can iron out. We will get better as the weeks go by and as we get back playing.

"Overall, I was pleased and we've got another four friendlies to start fixing stuff up. I've already said that you don't win championships in January and in friendlies, so things are building up nicely for us.

"The bulk of last season's squad is still in place and the basis of my starting 17 was there in Sunday's game.

"The way the game went, we were on top for the opening 40 minutes and it was only when I started making a number of changes that we fell by the wayside a bit.

"We'll learn from that and I think keeping the squad together will definitely help us this coming season."

The friendly against Leigh kicks off at 2pm - an hour earlier than originally scheduled due to the Rugby League Rocks event in Manchester later on Sunday.