SAINTS will use the hurt of Friday’s Challenge Cup semi-final knockout by Leeds as a motivational tool as they prepare for the next phase of the Super League campaign – the Super 8s.

And although the bookmakers have slashed the odds on the Rhinos taking the treble to 4/1, Saints boss Keiron Cunningham says his side will have something to say about that.

And Saints’ focus on retaining the two trophies they took out in 2014 sharpens on Saturday when the Super 8s kicks off.

Saints are currently in second – a point off leaders Leeds and six ahead of fifth-placed Castleford.

The top eight teams carry over their points from the opening 23 matches into the final seven rounds. Then, in stark contrast to the convoluted system of recent years, a straightforward 1 v 4, 2 v 3 play-off will send two winners to Old Trafford.

It is a format that Cunningham welcomes, with the next phase coming at a perfect juncture after the weekend’s Challenge Cup defeat.

Cunnningham said; “The season starts again. The format is new to everybody and after the disappointment of the cup loss you can look at it one or two ways; You can sit and cry and feel sorry for yourself, or you can use it as some sort of motivation.

“We have to use the pain and sting of that loss – the players will see Leeds walking out at Wembley and think it should have been them.

“We have to use that as a motivation.

“Everybody tells me how poor we always do in Catalans and we have to use that too as a motivation. It is not Catalans right to win every game at home and we have to go over there and prove people wrong.”

Although the 24-14 Challenge Cup loss was painful, stretching Saints’ absence from Wembley to seven years, Cunningham was keen to find a shred of a silver lining in that dark cloud.

“We should be aiming high now in this competition because we have not got the focus of the Challenge Cup.

“We will have the luxury of a weekend off in three weeks’ time.

“We will re-focus and I will get them back on the horse. Wembley would have been nice, but we have a big one to aim for now.

“We want to finish as high up as we can. The further we finish up the table the better your chances.

“You have to be top four to even dream of it,” he said.

Although a ball has yet to be kicked in the Super 8s and the Qualifiers, made up of the bottom four from Super League and the top four from the Championship, it has already captured the imagination in a way the previous system never did.

Cunningham welcomes the change.

“It is great for the competition,” he said.

“This year you have seen teams beating teams that you would not have thought. I am really looking forward to the Middle 8s because the format for that whets the appetite.

“People are talking about Leigh and Bradford, but it will be good to see them play against those Super League teams in a mini comp.

“ Playing one- off games is all well and good, but to do it consistently well deserve to be in Super League.

“The game always has to evolve. The game is on a crest of a wave; standards, publicity and financially the picture is better than it was years ago.

“You always have to evolve and change for the better and this new format is good.”

All the talk now is about Leeds and whether they can do what they failed to do last season when they fell away after winning the Challenge Cup at Wembley.

The bookies sense a Rhinos treble – Saints, and undoubtedly Wigan, will have other ideas – as too will Hull KR.

Cunningham was a centre piece of Daniel Anderson’s 2006 Grand Slam winning team – the last team to win the lot – and he reckons Leeds will find it tougher to emulate that treble-winning side.

“The format makes it really hard to win both competitions too.

“If Leeds could do the treble this year that would make them a very special team, but to try and get your players up for big games and then back up with Super 8s will be tough.

“As a player, the way it was formulated when we did the treble, you could do it – you could have those mini lulls and then pick it up again.

“Leeds will have a big game the week before the Challenge Cup final and then the prospect of Saints going to Headingley the week after.

“We will be stinging from that semi and, if they are successful, they will hopefully still be celebrating,” Cunningham said.