Warrington v St Helens - Teams
Warrington will be looking to buck more than one trend when they face St Helens in their derby encounter on Friday evening.
Last Updated: 24/04/08 4:10pm
Warrington will be looking to buck more than one trend when they face St Helens in their derby encounter on Friday evening.
The Wolves have beaten Saints just once in 31 Super League encounters and have lost the last 13, including the second match of the season at Knowsley Road.
Paul Cullen's side are also aiming to halt a run of three successive league defeats; however, they are close to full strength, with Great Britain trio Stuart Reardon, Paul Johnson and skipper Adrian Morley all returning to action.
"We're looking healthy and we will need our strongest team," Cullen said. "We expect St Helens to be at full strength and hopefully we can get somewhere near that and give the Warrington-Saints derby justice.
"It's an exciting week when you come up against St Helens and we know we are going to have to be at our best."
St Helens coach Daniel Anderson will have his strongest line-up of the season - certainly a timely boost given that they are looking for their first away victory since winning at Bradford in February.
Great Britain forwards Lee Gilmour and James Graham are back from injury with Sean Long, Leon Pryce, Jason Cayless and captain Paul Sculthorpe all returning after being rested for the cup tie against London Skolars last Sunday.
"We will have a lot of injured players returning to action on Friday night, which gives me some welcome problems on who to leave out," said Anderson. "I have not had that difficulty so far this year."
Warrington (19-man squad): Reardon, Hicks, M. Gleeson, King, Penny, Briers, Monaghan, Morley, Clarke, Rauhihi, L. Anderson, Westwood, V. Anderson, M. Gleeson, Parker, Johnson, Riley, Bracek, Harrison.
St Helens (19-man squad): Wellens, Gardner, Gidley, Talau, Meli, Pryce, Long, Cunningham, Cayless, Gilmour, Wilkin, Sculthorpe, Roby, Bennett, Flannery, Graham, Hargreaves, Clough, Fa'asavalu.