'Nobody is safe'

From the archive, first published Thursday 9th Feb 2006.

In describing his performance against Wests Tigers as "reasonable", Jamie Langley is doing himself a massive injustice.

The Bulls loose forward was rampant in the World Club Challenge and if Stuart Fielden hadn't delivered his own gold-star display, Langley could well have scooped the man of the match award.

But everything is relative in the world of a rugby league professional and so that form matters little when Super League opens at Wakefield on Sunday.

The back-rower knows he isn't even sure of a starting spot when the champions begin the defence of their title.

"I played reasonably well last Friday but so did a lot of people," said Langley.

"Stuart was awesome but I reckon all the forwards played well and really set the platform.

"But there's a few coming back this week too, with Paul Deacon and possibly Chris McKenna, so that competition is going up."

Langley, so often used as an impact player from the bench, added: "Hopefully I'll keep the start but we'll have to see.

"It's a sort of personal goal every year to secure a place in the team, preferably in the starting line-up, but there's a lot of good players here.

"You always have that opportunity though to play yourself into the side and it comes down to personal performance."

Having successfully overcome off-season shoulder surgery, the 22-year-old looks in peak condition ahead of the kick-off at the Atlantic Solutions Stadium.

But Langley doesn't want a repeat of last season's opening fixture - a home loss against the Wildcats.

"They caught us cold," he recalled. "Wakefield are a very strong side who always perform well against us but we've been looking at where we can improve and hopefully this year we'll get off to a flier.

"It helps quite a lot if you do. It's good for confidence to get the ball rolling."

A year ago, Langley had been at the centre of speculation he would move to home-town Wakefield with Stuart Reardon as part of the ill-fated and ultimately unsuccessful Gareth Ellis bid.

It wasn't the easiest period but he responded by proving a pivotal part of the Bulls' title glory.

"At the time it was just one of those things," explained the England forward. "The club is run as a business and they have got to look at the best interests of the club at that time.

"Me and Stuart just let it go over the top of our heads. We didn't let it affect us too much and just concentrated on our performance.

"I didn't set out to prove a point but my goal is always to improve on the season before.

"Maybe in the back of my mind I did think about it but it's all in the past now."

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