The Sydney Roosters are embracing the challenge of a treacherous draw to start the NRL season as they look to hit the ground running on Saturday night.

With no time to ease their way into 2015, the Roosters launch their campaign in tropical Townsville against Johnathan Thurston’s North Queensland before tackling premiers South Sydney in round two.

Then they face Penrith, another of the tricolours’ finals nemeses from last year.

Far from complaining, though, the Roosters can’t wait to test themselves against the competition’s heavyweights, especially the Cowboys and Rabbitohs.

“That’s motivation itself, coming up against two teams with extremely powerful packs. We’re going to have our work cut out but it’s time to see how we’ve been going in pre-season,” Roosters enforcer Sam Moa said on Monday.

“Every other team has been training hard and we’re no different; we’ve been going extremely hard and we can’t wait to start the game because it seems that you’re just training with no reward at the end of pre-season.”

The Roosters were left reeling from an upset finals loss to the Panthers last season before the Rabbitohs delivered the knockout blow the following week to end their title defence.

“We obviously fell a bit short of where we wanted to be but it was still a relatively successful year for us,” Moa said.

“We won the minor premiership and the Rabbitohs were just too good for us in the end and knocked us out.

“In terms of last year, we’re taking the positives into this season.”

One positive is not being the hunted.

“It eases a bit of the pressure in regards to the media and how people perceive us,” Moa said.

“I can’t talk for the Rabbitohs and how they’re feeling, but there’s a good feeling among us as a team who aren’t the reigning premiers and we’re looking to get back to the top spot.

“It is a bit of a different feeling because (being the) defending premiers, there’s added pressure there every week and everyone’s talking you up in the pre-season.

“We’re not stupid enough to say we’re flying under the radar because we never will be here in Sydney, but we’re confident in the way that we’ve prepared and we can’t wait to get on the field and start performing and do what we’ve been training in the pre-season.”