BRAD Singleton feels rugby league’s Million Pound Game should be scrapped as Hull Kingston Rovers and Salford Red Devils players prepare to battle for their futures.

Today’s encounter will be a one-off fixture to decide which of the sides stays in Super League and which becomes the first to be relegated from the top-flight under the new league structure.

That fixture has seen all 12 Super League sides play 23 regular season games, before the top-eight and bottom-four were divided.

Singleton and his Leeds side found themselves in the bottom four alongside Hull KR and Salford, fighting it out with four Championship sides to determine who would be in the top-flight in 2017.

Leigh Centurions’ six wins from seven guaranteed they would be the first promoted side in almost a decade, while Hull KR finished fourth and Salford fifth to set up the Million Pound Game this weekend.

Rhinos prop Singleton feels the format puts too much pressure on the outcome of a single game, and risks making light of putting livelihoods and careers under threat.

He expressed his sympathy for both teams involved – Leeds having topped the Super 8s Qualifiers to retain their status – and said: “I can’t help but feel for the boys who are in the situation of playing in the Million Pound Game at Salford and Hull KR.

“I don’t rate the Million Pound Game. It will draw the viewers and the crowds will attend and enjoy it, but there are people with mortgages and jobs on the line.

“All the top-end players at Hull KR and Salford, whoever goes down, they will be picked up again. But it’s not them I worry about, it’s the young players, the ones who just have one income and the mortgages.

“I don’t rate that game as a format. But everyone knew the rules at the start of the year, so they just have to get through it, and may the best team win.

“There is too much pressure on the individuals out there. Personally, I would just have it that one comes up, one goes down. Then you know you’re in or out. For it to come down to 80 minutes, and for every player to go through that, where every missed tackle counts. It will be watched, the crowd will enjoy it, but for the players in there, it won’t be a nice occasion.”