Former St George Illawarra forward Michael Cooper says he has a personal point to prove against Wayne Bennett's Brisbane Broncos in the World Club Series on Saturday.
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After three years in the NRL, Cooper has returned to Warrington with the message that many Australians have little or no respect for Super League.
Cooper hit out at the retired Jamie Soward for his recent criticism of the European competition but with northern hemisphere teams winless since 2012 in the WCC and WCS, the 28-year-old plans to do his talking on the field at Halliwell Jones Stadium.
"I'm looking forward to it – purely because I want to prove a point," Cooper told Fairfax Media.
"Super League doesn't get the best rap in Australia, from the players and the media. But it's a quality competition.
"There's some fantastic players playing here and I'm a believer there's a lot of players here who could potentially go over there and do very well.
"But it's a totally different game, really. (I want to) prove a point that we're not that far off, as everyone thinks that we are.
"I think we're the team to do it."
Soward, who played last year for Championship side London Broncos, said Super League was 10 years behind the NRL, adding "the Super League players just aren't good enough, to be honest."
Cooper subsequently described the comments as "a poor show".
Former NSW captain Kurt Gidley believes Warrington need to adjust their game slightly to match Brisbane.
"Last year's World Club Series with three teams from each competition wasn't a fair reflection," said the Wolves import.
"The scorelines blew out. They were quality NRL teams who came over but it was a bit of a dampener on the Super League in general.
"We've got an opportunity as a club to try and pick the reputation of the Super League up a bit against the Broncos.
"We want to hold our gloves up and have a respectable result in the end."
Asked how Warrington would play, he said: "NRL teams slow the ruck down. All the teams have been doing it for a long time at training.
"We'll have to discuss a game plan. Defensively is going to be our biggest thing against a team like the Broncos.
"They've got some great attacking players and Darius (Boyd), what he does on that sweep line … we've seen him do it in the Four Nations final.
"Darius finds the right pass most of the time."
Brisbane and Cronulla remain in camp in London until Thursday. The Sharks play Wigan in the World Club Challenge on Sunday.
