THE preparations are at an end and now it’s time for the real thing.

And for Sam Burgess and Warrington Wolves, they perhaps could not have asked for a tougher re-introduction to Super League.

Regardless of Catalans Dragons’ form, a trip to Perpignan is always among the competition’s most daunting prospects but with Steve McNamara having assembled a side that will look to challenge again, Burgess is certainly being thrown in at the deep end for his first game as a top-flight head coach.

However, it appears he would not have it any other way.

“Good – I like that,” he said when it was put to him that this was perhaps among the toughest Round One games they could have been given.

“Leigh were brilliant in the trial and came with a load of energy, Catalans will come with that plus a bit of physicality.

“It’s great for us – whatever the result, we’ll take something out of it and learn from it as a group. That’s a really important part of our year.”

The aforementioned trial was perhaps a wake-up call for Burgess as to the size of the task ahead of him to return The Wire to the upper echelons of the Super League table.

Leigh Leopards were comfortable 28-12 winners as front-line first-team players were restricted to a 40-minute, largely underwhelming outing – the side that was arguably the strongest Burgess could field started the game and trailed 12-6 at half time before youngsters took over after the break.

Having initially been critical of what he saw, however, Burgess has somewhat mellowed about the display upon further review.

“They’ve been good and have responded really well to it,” he said.

“It was quite emotive after the game – I was disappointed initially but I’ve watched the game back and there were things that I liked.

“We didn’t really attack the game with much emphasis on trying to win. We just wanted to see how we adapted our structures.

“I’m a bit more relaxed about it now and we’ve had a good week’s preparation since then.”

With that game now firmly in the rear-view mirror, all focus switches to the first of two trips to Perpignan during the regular season – they will return in Round 12 at the end of May.

The cross-Channel away day brings about unique travel challenges and in recent years, The Wire have opted to fly in and out of France on the day of the game.

This time, however, they will be doing things differently.

“We’re going to go a few days before,” Burgess said.

“I think it’s important the guys have a day off and I don’t want them to use that for travelling.

“We’ll get a session in out there before we play.”

The team are expected to fly to France on Wednesday before returning to England on Sunday.