Melbourne players have lit the fuse for an explosive opening to Sunday's World Club Challenge by saying they expect the same fireworks that Leeds dished up to Manly in last year's violent encounter.

The Sea Eagles accused their Rhinos rivals of premeditated bullying after the Australian side won the 2009 fixture, which saw two players sin binned for fighting, Rob Burrow knocked out and racial abuse claims that were never fully investigated.

Forward Adam Blair said the Storm were definitely taken off-guard by Leeds tactics in 2008 and had learnt from Manly's strong-arm response 12 months later.

"I think it was the first time over, we weren't expecting anything," he said of the 2008 game won 11-4 by Leeds.

"Maybe there's a little bit of niggling going around.

"They did the same thing (last year) that they did to us when we were over here and Manly were up for it. We've got to be up for it.

"Training this week is all about trying to be physical and making sure you're up for it mentally.

"We need to start getting that into our team, we've got to start being aggressive even if we take it back to Australia and start doing that with the other teams we play against.

"It's going to be big."

Rugby Football League referees coach Stuart Cummings, who is to meet Storm coach Craig Bellamy on Friday, said there would be no warnings on fisticuffs.

"It's an international rugby league match if they want to get stuck into each other, they will," he said.

Leeds coach Brian McClennan told AAP both sides in last year's WCC had let the code down and that Melbourne were mistaken if they thought the Rhinos would stray from the rules on Sunday.

"There's no basis to that," he said.

"There were events that happened in the match that didn't portray the game in a positive light and I think both teams shouldn't feel that flash about that.

"This is a game to promote our sport and we want to promote it in a positive light.

"We're preparing for what's going to be the toughest rugby league match we'll have ever been involved in to date.

"And the discipline required to perform well in these type of matches has to be spot on.

"You can't afford to have any player getting a sin bin or sent off for a misdemeanour.

"You're not going to carry on and have a chance of winning that game.

"We're certainly going to be out on the pitch sticking rigidly to all the rules.

"It will be physical, yes. They're a bit more like a Test match than a normal grand final."

Leeds five-eighth Danny McGuire recalled of last year: "It was a bit of a tasty game, there were a few flare-ups and things like that.

"I think it's England v Australia, Super League v NRL so there's always going to be a big tussle.

"At times it does get a bit heated."

The Rhinos have confirmed winger Scott Donald (shoulder) is out for three months while centre Brett Delaney (knee/hamstring) told PA he was a 50-50 chance of playing.

More than 20,000 tickets have already been sold for the match.

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