The Liam Farrell Column: Cup final will be special, but focus is on Rhinos

It’s felt like a long wait since 2013 for the lads who were there and we’re all made up to be going back.

I was hoping to play in the semi-final after being named in the squad, but failed a late fitness test so had to miss the game.

I was gutted in a sense, but it was Shaun Wane’s call and on reflection I’m probably happy with the decision as playing might have made the injury worse.

It was a 50/50 call and I think we made the right one.

Having had another week off on the playing front, I might be fit to play against Leeds tomorrow.

It will just be a case of working with the physios to see how everything is, but we won’t push anything because the next six to seven weeks adds up to a huge couple of months and we need as many players fit as we can.

I was obviously chuffed for the lads to win on Sunday, for the lads who have waited a while to get back to Wembley and the ones who haven’t done it before.

The way we started was ideal for making us look comfortable but credit to Salford for fighting back the way they did.

We don’t seem to like being comfortable and we gave them a chance to come back. We slipped off the gas in that second 20-minute spell of the first half and we also didn’t help ourselves with the two sin-binnings. It was close all the way through and good to watch – I’m just pleased we got the result.

I’m really looking forward to getting back to Wembley.

Quite a few people say this, but it’s true, everything about it from the week building up to it is great to experience.

It all starts with the send-off when the fans see you onto to the coach, to the team run on the Wembley pitch, to the game itself.

It will be my third Wembley and I’m very grateful for that – we’re very lucky to be able to experience that, and it’s one the younger lads in the squad will remember for the rest of their lives.

You have to capture it in slow motion because they are very special memories.

Before we can even think about any of that though, we have three Super 8s games to get on with, starting with Leeds tomorrow night.

Leeds have shown a lot of people how good a side they are this year, and none of us will be reading anything into the result at our place a couple of weeks ago – they will be a different side this time.

We’ve not won at Headingley for a long time, but I’m confident going into every game that we can get a result.

We just have to perform.

I can’t think of many place to go that are harder to play at than Headingley, and I’m sure tomorrow night will be no different.

We will have to be on our game, keep hold of the ball and try to force errors from them by putting pressure on. They have some big players for us to contain.

That will give us every chance of winning this one.

If we do all that and manage to win, then we’ll have done a lot to get us on our way to reaching those play-off places.

It’s going to be tight throughout the Super 8s but we’re very confident we can get the job done as long 
we perform like we know we can.