An early Saturday morning alarm call will force open the eyes of the British rugby league public as a nation of oval-ball fanatics switch on the kettle and sizzle the bacon in anticipation of the World Club Challenge taking place over 10,000 miles away on the other side of the planet.

Last season the Melbourne Storm, came, saw and conquered the Leeds Rhinos and now it is the time for Wigan Warriors to defend a nation’s honour and try and to recreate the famous outcome achieved twenty years ago when they returned from a match in Brisbane, safely clutching the silverware.

Few however, give the Warriors a 'snowballs chance in hell' of defeating the Australian champions, the Sydney Roosters, a side packed with players who recently helped their national side to lift the World Cup.

The Warriors are set to risk skipper Sean O’Loughlin and free-scoring Josh Charnley who both missed the Superleague XIX season opening humiliating home defeat to the Huddersfield Giants. It is a big gamble for coach Wane on both accounts as the Roosters will fully exploit any hint that a player is not one hundred percent on their game.

Wigan are without youngster Sam Powell who picked up an ankle injury in training, and Wane with name his final seventeen from a squad of; Bateman, Bowen, Burgess, Charnley, Clubb, Crosby, Dudson, Farrell, Flower, Gelling, Goulding, Green, Hughes, McIlorum, O'Loughlin, Pettybourne, Sarginson, Smith, and Taylor.

The Roosters are the red hot favourites with the bookies to win the match up at the Allianz Stadium in Sydney and secure the trophy for the first time (in a one game knockout) on home soil since Eastern Suburbs beat St. Helens way back in 1976.

Only the retired Luke O’Donnell and the World Cup Final injured Kiwi international Tuivasa-Sheck are missing from the seventeen players who beat Manly to win last season’s Australian Grand Final, as coach Trent Robinson names his strongest possible side.

The squad of twenty is packed full of household names, familiar even to those of us on this side of the planet; Minichiello, Tupou, Jennings, Aubusson, Kenny-Dowall, Maloney, Pearce, Waerea-Hargreaves, Friend, Moa, Cordner, Williams, Nuuausala, Mortimer, Guerra, Napa, Casty, Evans, Milne, and Kara.

The only lifeline for the Warriors seems to be that the Roosters left it a little late to get back into training, having been back in camp for just over a fourtnight. But make no mistake, Wane and his charges are really up against it and it would be a major upset for them to emerge victorious.

So come first light on Saturday morning make sure that your alarm is set, the cupboard is stocked with tea bags, and frying pan is good and hot. Then sit back and enjoy what should be a great spectacle.