FORMER England international Ryan Atkins is ready to upset two of his closest friends tonight in a bid to help Warrington extend their eight-match winning run.

The Leeds-born centre was a teammate of the Rhinos’ second row forward Brett Ferres at the start of their professional careers 15 years ago and he forged a close bond with scrum half Richie Myler during his six-year stint at the Wolves.

But those friendships will be cast aside for 80 minutes at Headingley tonight when Warrington seek revenge for their opening-round Super League home defeat by Leeds and stay in touch with leaders St Helens.

“I moved over when I joined Warrington, but I’ve still got family in Leeds and friends who play at Leeds,” said the 32-year-old Atkins.

“Richie is godfather to our eldest child and me and Brett have been really close friends since our days at Bradford Bulls.”

Warrington are three points ahead of the reigning champions after 13 rounds of the regular season, which is a far cry from this time last year when they were struggling in the bottom four and facing a relegation battle.

“It’s always a big ask going to Headingley,” Atkins added. “We’re going to have to be at our best to beat them, but we’re going into the game confident.

“That’s something we lacked last year and early on this year — confidence.

“I don’t want to keep looking back, but a lot of us were in dark places last year and now it’s a lot different.

“It was always going to be a tough start with a new coach and new structures, but we’re getting there.

“We want to try and cement that top-four spot now.”

Warrington have been dealt a body blow by the loss of England second rower Ben Currie for the rest of the season with a knee injury, but coach Steve Price has delivered a vote of confidence in his understudy, the versatile Harvey Livett.

“No one individual is bigger than the team,” Price said. “I was really happy with how Harvey Livett played last week.

“I thought he showed a lot of good signs and I know that there is a lot more upside in Harvey’s game and the combination he can build with Kev Brown. I’m confident that Harvey can do a really good job for us.”

Six months on from joining Leeds, Auckland-born prop Nathaniel Peteru will finally get the chance to make his home debut.

The former Gold Coast forward tore a bicep on his Super League debut in the Rhinos’ 16-12 win over the Wolves in February but made his comeback on dual registration with Featherstone last Sunday and has been called into Brian McDermott’s squad for tonight’s game.

Elsewhere, Huddersfield’s interim boss Chris Thorman could give debuts to halfback Oliver Russell and centre Jake Wardle against Widnes in what is likely to be his last match in charge as the Giants await the arrival of new head coach Simon Woolford.

And Wigan welcome back international trio Sam Tomkins, John Bateman and Ben Flower for the visit of Salford.