TONY Smith insists Warrington Wolves must remain disciplined when Championship leaders Leigh Centurions visit in the Challenge Cup on Saturday.

Former Wolves hooker Micky Higham will not feature for Leigh in the quarter-final clash at The Halliwell Jones Stadium, 3pm kick off.

But Smith says his side must show their Super League credentials and not become distracted from playing ‘good rugby’.

“We’ll have a healthy respect for them,” said Wolves’ head of coaching and rugby.

“They throw the ball around and like to play some rugby. They’ve had a good couple of years in the Championship.

“Discipline is a big thing for us. Not to drop our levels of discipline or get drawn into being distracted from playing good rugby.”

And he insists ill-feeling between the clubs following Higham’s transfer earlier in the season will not have a bearing on Saturday’s game.

“That’s dead and buried, we’ve moved on,” added Smith. “We’ve got Brad Dwyer with us now and Brad’s been great. He’s been a breath of fresh air for us.

“It couldn’t be further from our minds. It’s about rugby and concentrating on the job.

“Nothing done on the rugby field is going to change something that’s happened in the past, so we focus about getting things right on the rugby park.”

Wolves will be without Toby King, who suffered a syndemosis ankle injury in the defeat to Hull KR last Friday, but welcome back Richie Myler, Gareth O’Brien and Ben Currie.

Smith, a three-time Challenge Cup winning coach with Wolves, admits the competition may be a welcome distraction after successive losses in the league.

“We’d like to get our house back in order this week and get on a bit of a run back in the league as well – it all has to start this weekend,” he said.

“It’s good timing for us to have the distraction of the cup but at the same time we can build towards a strong finish to the season.

“It’s still the same game that we play; you still have to make tackles and run the ball hard, score points.

“But there’s a different romance about the cup, the fact that you don’t have next week to fix things up.

“It’s not for two points, it’s for survival and that’s the pressure on the two teams. It’s something we’ve enjoyed in the past and we’re looking forward to being involved in again.”

Smith added: “We certainly weren’t punching the air about the way we performed at Hull KR.

“We feel that we’re back on track in knowing what we should be doing.

“It’s now about training to do that and then it’s about applying that in games.”